Morrison Remick IVaite. cated accounts. In such matters as these his professional career was engrossed, until, with the growth of prosperity and renewal of business, he naturally succeeded to conduct ing and settling business disputes and advis ing business men. He rode the circuit twice a year, where a powerful frame and strong stomach were essential to cope with the fatigue of poor roads and the disgust of bad food. These requisites Waite had, together with an equable temperament and unas suming manner. He was popular with his brethren of the bar, who trusted his rugged honesty and admired his simple character. He kept aloof from politics, although in 1849 he was elected to the Ohio Legislature as a Whig from a strongly Democratic dis trict, but retired at the end of his term. He moved to Toledo in 1850, when it became the county seat. He was an admirer of the "Great Compromiser," Henry Clay, and when the Whig Party broke up he naturally espoused the Republican cause. During the War of the Rebellion he steadfastly sup ported President Lincoln and lent some aid in raising troops. In 1862 he was nominated for Congress by a bolting convention, but was defeated in the election by Ashley, the regular Republican candidate, although he carried Toledo by a large majority. In 1863 he was offered, by Governor Brough, a seat upon the Supreme Court of Ohio. This he declined. I have seen it stated that he was again nominated and defeated for Congress, and that he again declined a seat upon the Supreme Court of Ohio, but no dates are given, and after some investigation I am in clined to believe that the statements are mistakes. This record so bare and commonplace, with the additional fact that he was married in 1840, is all that we know of Mr. Waite's life up to 1871. It is easy to fill in the simple details, the domestic happiness and
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peace, the constantly increasing income, the steady application, the widening circle of acquaintances and friends, the kindly hospi tality. But there are no forensic triumphs, no reputation for great learning or ability, no peculiar adaptability or capacity. He was a safe man, unassuming and conscientious, scarcely known beyond the borders of Ohio, or perhaps, more strictly speaking, beyond the limits of Maumee County. His appoint ment by President Grant, in November, 1871, to represent the United States before the Tribunal of Arbitration at Geneva, came with a shock of surprise to the country, and to no one more than to Waite himself. He was in New York at the time, and had no intimation of his selection as one of the three counsel, until he received the telegram, for warded from Toledo, announcing his appoint ment. In the work which then devolved upon him he proved himself the equal of his two colleagues, Evarts and Cushing. His power of steady application, of mastering de tails and arranging them in logical order, made his argument before that International Tribunal upon the question of England's liability for allowing Confederate cruisers to coal in British ports, effective and unanswer able. His forensic antagonist, Sir Roundell Palmer, raised in the following year to the peerage as Lord Selborne, was overwhelmed. That argument undoubtedly was the greatest achievement of his life. In recognition of it he was given the degree of Doctor of Laws by Yale in 1872, and to it he owed his eleva tion to the Chief Justiceship of the United States. He returned from Geneva to re sume his practice at Toledo, and in January, 1873, upon the motion of Caleb Cushing, was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States. On May 7, 1873, Mr. Chief Justice Chase died. President Grant offered the vacant place to Roscoe Conkling, who declined it.
