Evening star., 1932-10-13
TINE text Of the address by John
w. Davis On behalf Of the Bar
Of the Supreme Court ut the
Sunreme Court corner stone lay

w. Davis On behalf OF the Bar
Of the Supreme Court Ut the
i Supreme Court corner stone lay
ing follows:
It was a dictum OF the older physics
| that large bodies move slowly because
of an innate quality called inertia. The
doctrine still holds in, tie political
world, and accordingly it has taken the
greatest Of our judicial bodies almost
| century and hah to reach . dwelling
that b al It's own, notwithstanding the
| fact that as early Is 17e6 . committee
! of the House OF Representatives, report
| ing on the progress OF the newborn
l Capital City, noted that arrangement
I had been made for housing the execu-
! tive and legislative branches Of the
Government, but "a building for the
! judiciary was among the objects yet to
be accomplished"
In It's measured and deliberate progress
| to this happy hour the Supreme Court
has travelled a circuitous route. with
many halts along the way. Its opening
sessions were held in the building of the
! Royal Exchange, ON Broad street. in the
! City of New York. Thence it moved to
| the New City Han in Philadelphia, and
| in a short time joined the other depart
ments of the Federal Government In
the march on Washington. Here on
| what were then the mud f1ets Of the
! Potomac it found lodgment in the tiny
| room now occupied as an office by the
marshal of the court. DESERVING with
reason these contracted quarters, it
crossed the Capitol Building to the
rooms now tenanted by its clerk. and
| shortly thereafter it descended to the
basement room beneath its present
, Enthusiastically described by a
| nhcpryaY q q "nn-
| tato hole of place" This humble rest
was disturbed by certain incendiary
! proceedings of the year 1914, when the
rude invader, in order to make destruc-
| ton more complete. piled on the fioor OF
, the court room not only the courts own
scanty furniture but that from neigh
| boring rooms and gave the whole
funeral pyre, to the oevouring flames.
| Fleeing from the storm, the court found
, transitory shelter in the home OF its
clerk, Elias Boudinot Caldwell, on Penn
/ sylvania avenue southeast, and after
| two years of his enforced hospitality 1t
! than a dungeon" in the less ruined por-
ton of the Capitol, where il waited in
patience for the summons that recalled
| it to the restored and redecofated 1udg-
ment seat from which 1t had been SO
ANONYMOUSLY displaced.
Cellar Like Aspect"
Even the rented chamber, however,
was not universally regarded as COM
mersurate with the august dignity CT
| the tribunal, for there were those who
| spoke of its "cellar-like aspect and
who declared that "a stranger might
traverse the dark avenues of the Capt.
| tai for week without finding the re-
mote corner in which justice is admin
| istered in the American Republic
room which Is hardly capacious enough
! for a ward Justice" Yet here for 40
years sat Marshall and Taney and
their colleagues, listening to the giants
| who walked the earth in those days and
| delivering those great opinions that
fixed the destiny of the Union: argu-
ments and opinions that gilded With
immortal glory the walls that heard
their utterance How different might
not America have been today If q single
one of the stones these men laid had
been omitted from the structure!
Finally in 1860 the court came up in
| the architectural world, stepping &C.
dately into the deserted Senate cham
| ber on the heels of the retreating Sena-
| tors as they departed to their more
stately mansions in the north wing of
the Capitol. This ground the court has
held, thence hitherto, against the drift
| Of the ceaseless human tide that ebbs
and flows past it's doors, symbolizing by
its corporeal presence that ours is a
government of laws and not of men,
and that over every legislative edict, over
every governmental action, there brcodS
the higher law of the Constitution, ma
jestic and supreme. To those who have
grown accustomed TO these surround
ings, who find something of value in
this symbolism. there Is q tinge of re-
gret In the thought that today marks
a break with old places old habits, and,
it may be, old traditions.
A Permanent Home.
For now another and a final move IS
at hand. Congress has at last provided
and the genius Of a great architect has
planned . permanent home for the
court that in beauty and in dignity is
signed to house and worthy too, Of the
architectural company it keeps. Praise
/ need say no more. We the lawyers Of
America, represented in the American
Bar Association. come now TO lay its
corner stone. The task is fittingly ours.
No other body of men has an equal
right to claim this honor. Many men
Of equal worth and valor have served
alongside those of our calling in the
! legislative halls and executive chambers
! OF their country and on the tented
| field, but the methods ana machinery
for the administration of justice. the
erection and maintenance Of the courts
in general and of the Supreme Court of
the United States itself are the lawyers
peculiar contribution to the safety and
! endurance of the State. This noble
ediice and the work that will be done
in 1t will be conse:rated to the welfare
of every dweller in the Republic Yet
We as lawyers are entitled to say with
no undue boasting that this fabric will
contain our hearthstone, our workshop.
our temple. We claim priority Of place
so to receive and SO to dedicate it.
No doubt If Congress HAD acted on
the hint given by the House committee
| in 1896 and had proceeded forthwith