The Taney Bench. Catron of Tennessee an Associate Justice on the eighth of March, 1837. -His early educa tion was most rudimentary and he was twenty-six years of age before he began the study of law, but he soon acquired reputation as a lawyer of ability. "His power of judi cial analysis was remarkable and he sought in all cases to weigh and examine every au thority cited by counsel and to accept such only as seemed founded upon principle." John McKinley was also appointed by President Van Buren. He was reckoned the leader of the bar of Alabama and was sent to the United States Senate for two terms, having been selected for the bench during his last term. He served for fifteen years "as a candid, impartial and righteous judge, shrinking from no responsibility; he was fearless in the performance of his duty, seek ing only to do right and fearing nothing but to do wrong. For many of the last years of his life, he was enfeebled and afflicted by disease and his active usefulness interrupted and impaired. It may truly be inscribed upon his monument that as a private gentle man and as a public magistrate, he was with out fear and without reproach?' These words were uttered by Mr. John J. Crittenden, At torney General in the proceedings in rela tion to the death of Mr. Justice McKinley. Mr. Jeremiah S. Black, Attorney General at the opening of the Court on December fourth, 1860, said the seat which had been occupied by Mr. Justice Daniels has been made vacant by his death. He was a man of perfect integrity and the laws of this country were never administered by any judge who had a higher moral tone or who was in fluenced by purer motives. At the close of the December term 1872, Mr. Justice Nelson addressed the following letter to his associates: "I part from my brethren with regret and retire from an oc cupation which has been the height of my ambition for much the largest portion of my life, not from choice but for the reason that
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age and infirmities have disabled me from the performance of a full share of my duties." Nearly all the practising members of the bar before the Supreme Court joined in these words to Mt. Justice Nelson on his retire ment from the bench: "During many years of practice before you, we have had ample op portunity to appreciate and to admire your learning, impartiality and integrity, your kindly deportment towards the members of the bar, your elevated conception of justice and of right. In a word those preeminent judicial qualities which have distinguished your career, on the bench." At the December term, 1851, Mr. John J. Crittenden, Attorney General, announced the death of Mr. Justice Levi Woodbury and said, "It has rarely happened that any citi zen has enjoyed such a succession of exalted public honors as were shared by Judge Wbodbury, Governor, Secretary of the Treasury, Senator and his last and greatest distinction Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States." Mr. Justice Grier was appointed to the •bench in August, 1846, and resigned in January, 1870. General Grant, then Presi dent, writes him : "I sincerely regret the increasing physical infirmities which induce you to retire from the bench and with the assurance of my personal sympathy and re spect, desire also to express my sense of the ability and uprightness with which your judicial duties have been performed." "In looking upon your honorable and long career in the public service, it must be especi ally gratifying to yourself to remember, as it is my agreeable duty and privilege on this occasion thus distinctly to recognize, the great service which you were able to ren der to your country in the darkest hour oí her history by the vigor and patriotic firm ness, with which you upheld the just powers of the government and vindicated the right of the nation under the constitution to main tain its own existence."
