Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-08
JUSTICE WHITES CAREER
INSPIRES AMERICANS
Former Head of the Supreme Court
Was Soldier, Statesman and
Judicial Authority.

| Supreme bench, and at once accepted.
The Senate unanimously conflr ned the
appointment on February 10, 1894,
without even the Formally of a ref
erence to a committee. and America
witnessed the remarkable sight of a
soldier of the lost cause man who
had raised his hand against the Stars
and Stripes, first sitting with the court
in whose hands lies the Interpretation
of the Constitution and later, presiding
over 1t as the unusually loved, honoreo
and trusted Chief Justice"
On the death of Chief Justice Full
Ter, President Taft nominated Asso-
ciate Justice White as his successor on
December IL, 1910 1t has been said
that President Taft had no precedent
when he made this nomination. This
Is inaccurate, for President Washington
nominated Associate Justice Cushing
to be Chief Justice. Judge Cushing,
however, declined the Office.
The appointment of Chief Justice
White was confirmed at once by the
Senate, and 1t seems to have been ap-
proved by the country without excep-
ton. Having received this highest
judicial honor, Chief Justice White
continued to serve the Nation up to
within a few days of his death, which
occurred May 10, 1921.
On December II, 1921, many dis
tinguished iurists and lawyers gathered
in the Supreme Court chamber to pay
their respects to the memory of the
deceased Chief Justice, whose service
upon that bench was then described
by the now lamented Chief Justice Taft
in part as follows:
"Twenty-seven years of service upon
this bench. 16 years as an associate
justice and IL years as head of the
court, make Chief Justice Whites rec
ord nearly equal to that of John Mar
shall. The critical period covered by
the span of so many years. beginning
early in the last decade of one century
and extending into the third of the
next, likened itself in Importance to
that covered by the term Of the great
interpreter of the Constitution. 1t en-
braced two wars and a period of social
and business reforms involving sub
stantial and necessary changes of our
methods of Government, with the ap-
plication of which this court has had
much to do. In the necessary adjust
ment. the opinions Of Chief Justice
White we're most able and helpful con-
tributions His whole being
was absorbed by his anxious concern
for the maintenance of the prestige of
the court in the preservation of the
principles. He took infinite pains even
in the lesser details of his duties He
regarded his Office as a sacred trust,
as a holy grail, which awakened an
intense scrutiny of his own conduct
and that Of every member Of the
court"
A few years after the death of Chief
Justice White vast throng stood with
uncovered heads in front Of the white
marble court house on Royal street in
the City of New Orleans. There was
small group Of Confederate veterans.
wearing the gray uniform of 1861. In
the central space, upon a pedestal, stood
a statue, covered by large American
flag that fluttered in the soft April
sunshine. A band played old Southern
melodies. A distant fragrance of in
cense in the air was explained by the
sight Of white magnolias set in their
dark green foliage. Suddenly the, flag
was drawn aside, revealing the bronze
statue Of Chief Justice White. There
it stands, as George w. Wickersham,
the orator on that occasion, said, "a
perpetual stimulus to others, not only
in our age, but In the ages that fol-
low u.s."
And so the little house on Bayou
Lafourche still bravely stands where
heavy blue braided coat" and the coat
and flags thus mentioned by Chief Jus
tice White in an address to the Aneri
can Bar Association:
do you recall the toymaker and his
blind daughter, created by the genius
of Dickens and so admirably interpret
ed by that great artist, Joseph Jefferson,
in The Cricket on the Hearth, where
with a tenderness which may not be
described, mistaken though 1t may have
been, in order to conceal the poverty
and misery Of his surroundings the
father pictured to the blind one whom
he so much loved his environment as
one of prosperity and affluence? Let
us listen to her as she places her hand
upon his threadbare great coat, which
she deemed from his description to be
one Of some rich fabric, and hear her
question, what color Is 1t, father?
What color, my child? oh, blue-yes,
invisible blue And now with the
mistS of the conflict of the Civil War
cleared from my vision, as my eyes fall
with tender reverence upon that thin
gray line, 10, the invisible had become
visible, and the Blue and the Gray,
thank God, are one. See it again in
that flag which stands behind me.
can recollect the day when to me 1t was
but the emblem of darkness, of misery,
of suffering, of despair and despotism
But ali in the clarified vision in which
it is now given me to see it, as look
upon its azure field it is glorious not only
with the North Stars steady light, but
is Respondent with the luster of the
Southern Cross, and as contemplate
its stripes, they serve to mark the broad
way for the advance of mighty people
blessed with that plenitude Of liberty
foV, tf-FRCfYn
essential to the protection of the rights
of all And thus again see, although
the Stars and Bars have faded forever
the fundamental aspirations which they
symbolized find their imperishable exist
ence in the Stars and Stripes"