Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 02.pdf/524

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The Highest Courts of Law in New Hampshire. an attachment was or was not a lien. The matter got into politics, and, after the man ner of Granite State politics, was debated in every grocery-store, and argued after Sun day meetings on the green and in the adja cent horse-sheds. The unmistakable symptoms of a Staterights fever began to show themselves, and for a while the temperature was dangerously

high. Here is one of the resolutions passed by the House of Rep resentatives of New Hampshire by a vote of 190 ayes to 19 noes : "Resolved, That we highly appreciate and heartily approve the firm and decided stand which has been taken by the Judges of our Superior Court in opposition to the unwarrantable and dangerous assumptions of the Circuit Court of the United States in the recent controversy be tween said courts grow ing out of the operation of the Bankrupt Law; and that, in our opinion, they ought to and will be sustained in that WILLIAM stand, if need be, by the united voice and power of the government and people of this State." No blood was shed, for about that time the whole subject suddenly went out of sight, and the inauguration of civil war on the great question of whether an attachment was or was not a lien was happily averted. Chief-Justice Parker resigned in June, 1848, and immediately entered upon his new duties as Royall Professor of Law at Cambridge. He carried with him those habits of profound labor and patient re-

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search acquired in his long career on the bench, and the records of his professorship prove his great industry. Twenty years was his term of service in the Law School, — a period of hard but lasting work, not un mixed with participation in the discussions of constitutional questions growing out of the war of the Rebellion. He resigned in 1868, and died at Cambridge in August, 1875. " He contrib uted largely to the sound foundation of the science of Juris prudence in the State whose laws he admin istered, and spread his influence widely over the country through the pupils whose stud ies he guided and assisted." Upon the retirement of Judge Parker, in 1848, his mantle de scended on worthy shoulders, and the spotless integrity and intellectual strength of the Superior Court suffered no deteriora tion. John James Gil christ, of Charlestown, became his succes L. FOSTER. sor. Gilchrist was a man of fine personal appearance and bearing, not unduly ambi tious nor place-seeking, but a calm, even man, of splendid attainments both in law and literature. He was early distinguished among the older lawyers as a young man of decided legal ability; and in 1840, when he was called to the bench, every one acqui esced in the deserved promotion. He was in his thirty-first year; but his preparation had been ample, for he had enjoyed unusual advantages in the way of practice, and his learning was unquestioned. It has often been the custom in New