A Century of Federal Judicature.
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A CENTURY OF FEDERAL JUDICATURE. VI.
Вт VAN VECHTEN VEEDER. IT now remains to consider, in some detail, the services of those judges who have in various ways been conspicuous among their brethren during this period. The justices who have been thus reserved are: Miller (1862-90), Field (1863-97), Bradley (1870-92) and Gray (1882-1902). It is needless to add that if living judges were within the scope of this sketch it would be necessary to consider Mr. Justice Harlan's services in this connec tion. No justice of the Supreme Court during the last half century holds a higher place in the estimation of the legal profession than Justice Miller. Justice Miller's intellect was not stronger than Justice Field's; he was surpassed by Justice Gray in learning and industry; he was inferior to Justice Bradley in general scholarship, and to Mr. Justice Harían in power of expression. But in the intuitive perception of legal principles and their luminous applica tion to new conditions he was unsurpassed among his colleagues. In the domain of con stitutional law, in which he exercised his highest powers, he was surpassed by Mar shall alone; and many other branches of fed eral jurisprudence owe their stability and symmetry, in no small degree, to his profound abilities. His mind, like Marshall's, was orig inal and creative, rather than dependent upon the recondite learning of the past. He had a natural aptitude for judicial duties; he read ily grasped the scope and details of a case, and was quick to discover the ultimate issues involved, which he determined in his own mind without hesitation and always with provident foresight of the consequences which might be legitimately drawn from his conclusions. This clear perception of things,
and of the requirements of the situation, his foresight as to consequences, and his inde pendent and fearless discharge of the most difficult judicial duties through a long term of years, have given him a secure position among the great luminaries of the law. Justice Miller was a man of strong per sonal characteristics. He first practised (medicine for ten years, and was led to relin quish that profession, it is said, in conse quence of an overwhelming sense of personaJ (responsibility; whenever he lost a patient lie ' was oppressed by the thought that perhaps a different treatment would have saved fruman life. At the age of thirty-two, there fore, he changed his profession; and so rapid and conspicuous was his success that within fifteen years thereafter he was appointed an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He therefore came to the bench in the prime of life, with a mind trained by twenty-five years' experience in two pro fessions, each of which require learning, knowledge of men and, above all, the habit of decision. Intellectually and morally, he was simple, rugged and frank to a fault. He masked real kindliness behind a gruff and abrupt judicial demeanor, and many amusing stories are told of his occasional inability to assert his rather imperious disposition within the bounds of judicial decorum. He was once holding court during the dog days in St. Louis, and listening to a prosy argument in an equity suit. The only persons in the court room besides himself and the lawyers en gaged in the case were the court attendants, who were dozing and sweating in their cor ners. Justice Miller had loosened his collar and cravat, his linen duster was flung open, and he was vigorously working a large palm
