ALLOTMENTS, ETC., OF THE

JUSTICES OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES,

AS THEY STOOD DURING THE TERMS OF 1872–73, TOGETHER WITH THE DATES OF THEIR
COMMISSIONS AND TERMS OF SERVICE, RESPECTIVELY.

The Fourth Circuit was vacant from May 7, 1873, to April 1, 1874, when a new allotment was made.

IN MEMORIAM.

BENJAMIN ROBBINS CURTIS.

My acquaintance with him commenced when, Resolved, That in the special qualities which in 1851, upon the recommendation of Mr. Webmark him as a consummate forensic advocate ster, he became one of the Associate Justices of and as an authoritative judge, the structure of the Supreme Court, and this acquaintance soon Mr. CURTIS' mind and its disclipine combined ripened into a close friendship which continued the widest and most circumspect comprehen unbroken to the last. And having been a very sion of all facts of legal import, however multi-constant attendant on the court for the last six tudinous; a luminous and penetrating insight years of his connection with it, and during the into the intricacies and obscurities of the most seventeen years that have elapsed since his rescomplex relations; and an efficacious power of ignation, when, at every session, he appeared reason, which produced the many admirable ex- as counsel, was afforded the best opportunity hibitions of his faculties at the Bar and on the of forming an opinion of him as judge and lawBench, which for forty-two years have served yer. I think, therefore, that I have a just esti

Mr. Johnson was followed by Mr. R. T. Merrick, who said:

MB. CHAIRMAN: Few men in any age, either in this country or in England, have so faithfully oc-illustrated the power, dignity and honor of the legal profession as ME. CURTIS.

His learning was profound and copious; his mind clear, earnest and powerful, and all his faculties were severely disciplined.

An

mate of him in both characters. As a judge of this high tribunal, it is impossible to imagine one who could be more fully competent to discharge its high and arduous duties. With a wealth of learning always adequate to the casion he was ever felicitous in his application of it to the case before him. His judicial opinions-indeed, all of them-were models of a correct style. It may with perfect truth be said of them, what, upon an occasion like the pres- His arguments at this bar, probably the most ent, he said of the opinions of the late pure and perfect models of forensic debate known to the great judge, Chief Justice Taney, that they profession, rested upon the fundamental prinwere characterized "by purity of style and ciples of the science of law applied and anclearness of thought." His arguments at the alyzed by deep but seemingly easy thought, and bar possessed equally sterling merit. The state- enforced by a logic whose severe features were ment of his case, and the points which it in- never disfigured by enfeebling ornament. volved, were always transparently perspicuous. appreciative listener could not refuse to follow And when his premises were conceded or estab- him in his course of reasoning, for his statelished, his conclusion was a necessary sequence. ment of his case was so plain, simple and perHis analytical and logical powers were remark- suasive, that it commanded attention to the able. In these respects, speaking from the fuller development of his propositions. Howknowledge of the great men whom I have heard ever voluminous the record or complicated the during a very long professional life, I think he nature of the case, a statement easy, clear and was never surpassed. And his manner of speak-concise, though full and comprehensive, dising was excellent. He ever suited "the action closed at once the exact questions at issue, and to the word, the word to the action," and never deeply impressed upon all who heard him the overstepped "the modesty of nature." He was convictions in the mind of the advocate. When, always calm, dignified and impressive, and, in that great trial in which the President of therefore, persuasive. No lawyer who heard the Republic was arraigned before its Senate, him begin an argument ever failed to remain sitting as a High Court of Impeachment, MB. until he had concluded. Were I to select in- CURTIS had concluded his opening statement stances as exhibiting his highest judicial excel- for the defense, there was nothing left of the lence and his highest forensic ability, I would case. point, for the one, to his dissenting opinion in what is known as the "Dred Boott case," and for the other, to his opening argument in the defense of President Johnson in the Impeachment Trial. Able as was the opinion of the majority of the court in that case, delivered by Chief Justice Taney, it was admitted at the time, I believe, by most of the profession, that the dissenting opinion of Judge Curtis was equally powerful. Lawyers may differ, as they have differed, as to which of these two eminent men were right, but they will all concede that the view of each was maintained with extraordinary ability, whilst those who knew thein both will never differ as to the sincerity of their respective convictions.

His convictions were ardent, hearty and earnest, and he clung to them with a firmness and tenacity that nothing could affect save only the proof that they were erroneous.

In the dark hours of our national trouble his voice was heard above the tempest of loosened passions vindicating the supremacy of law; and when the clash of arms had ceased but the storm still raged, he poured forth in this hall his appeal in behalf of a calm and considerate justice which should bear no sign of wrath or passion.

The death of such a man is a severe loss to the country as well as the profession.

ing. I knew him well and was honored by his friendship and a reasonable share of his confidence. I have listened to him with instruction and delight in public, and been greatly benefited by his counsels in private; and as I admired and loved him in life, I would place upon his grave a humble tribute of respect for his memory.

The HON. John A. Campbell, Chairman, then addressed the meeting as follows:

I did not rise for the purpose of pronouncing a eulogy on MB. CURTIS-that I leave to others As to the other-his defense of President-but only to gratify a demand of my own feelJohnson-having listened to it, and having more than once read it carefully, I think I am justified in saying that it covered every question which the case involved, and, although it was afterwards enforced by his able associates, it of itself greatly contributed to the defeat of the impeachment. Nothing could have exceeded the clearness of statement, the knowledge pertinent to the contest, or the power of reasoning by which he maintained his conclusions. It was, I believe, and, having been one of the judges, I think I know, generally thought to be fatal to the prosecution. When such a man, lawyer and judge, in the inscrutable dispensation of Providence, is taken from the profession, they His connection with the distribution of that cannot avoid feeling that it is not only a pri-justice which constitutions and laws define and vate but a public calamity. And it is due to his memory that we should express the sense of our loss and the great regard we entertained for him as a man, a lawyer, and a judge. And this will be accomplished by adopting the report of the committee. I, therefore, move its adoption.

A natural sorrow exists in the judicial tribunals and among the legal profession of the Union by the event of the death of the late Justice CURTIS.

regulate during a period of eventful history, has been so intimate, so useful to the country, and so honorable to himself and to his profession, that its severance occasions a pause and is felt as a calamity. To form and to maintain this connection was the aim of his life, the cherished and continuing aspiration of a mind and

character well composed. To the members of vacancy was supplied by one recommended by the same profession, such a life, such a mind, the Justices Justices Catron and CURTIS bearsuch a character are objects of particular inter-ing their recommendation to the President. est. His aspirations were favored in his birth- The Reports of Howard disclose that during place, by his education and by his associations. his judicial term he was generally in accord The history of Massachusetts just before the | with the majority of the court. He did not disRevolution, during the Revolution, and until sent often, and his dissent was usually with the time that Justice CURTIS received his im- large minority-rarely, if ever, did he stand pressions and impulse, was determined in a alone. They show that in some of the most im great measure by its legal profession. During portant cases, he prepared the opinions of the that period its courts were occupied by men of court. That these opinions embraced intricate extraordinary endowments, and of large and lib-questions of constitutional law, of admiralty jueral culture in law, jurisprudence, philosophy, risdiction, of commercial law, of the law of pat science and literature. The profession of the ents, of common and equity law. The range of law was not misdescribed by the term of a his professional experience in Massachusetts had learned profession. Dane and Parsons and Dex-been wide and comprehensive. His professional ter; Otis and Story and Wilde; Parker and studies had embraced the principies of law and Shaw, had stamped their names and characters the understanding of jurisprudence, and the upon it. The competitors that Justice CURTIS court rested with confidence upon his ability to had to encounter were Webster, Choate, Loring, expound principle and procedure. The opinBartlett and others, whose impulses were the ions show elaboration, a mastery of facts, ausame as his own. The scrutiny his arguments thorities and arguments, and a skillful emhad to experience was that of Story, Parker, ployment of precise and accurate statement and Shaw, Wilde, Putnam, Dewey, Metcalf, Sprague. discussion. But these Reports exhibit an im His first conviction must have been that, to perfect history of the duties actually performed. consummate his purpose, he must need to

"Pitch his project high; sink not in spirit." His first counsel to himself,

"Let thy mind still be bent, still plodding where,

The duties of the Justices of the Supreme Court consist in the hearing of cases; the preparations for the consultations; the consultations in the conference of the judges; the decision of the cause there, and the preparation of the opinion and the judgment of the court. Their most arduous and responsible duty is in the conference.

And when, and how the business must be done." After twenty years of labor on this "project" and under this counsel, in 1851 he was selected, It was here that the merits of Justice CURTIS as was the report of that day, by Mr. Webster, were most conspicuous to his associates. The as the fittest person to fill the vacancy, occa- Chief Justice presided, the deliberations were sioned by the death of Justice Woodbury, in the usually frank and candid. It was a rare inci Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. Web- dent in the whole of this period, the slightest ster said he wanted a full term of lifelong serv-disturbance from irritation, excitement, passion ice. He called for Justice CURTIS in the me

ridian of professional life. The appointment came to Justice CURTIS. He was not required to pursue it or to beseech it. It came to him by a divine right-as the fittest.

or impatience. There was habitually courtesy, good breeding, self-control, mutual deference. In Judge CURTIS, invariably so; there was nothing of cabal, combination, or exorbitant desire to carry questions or cases. Their aims were honorable and all the arts employed to attain them were manly arts. The venerable age of the Chief Justice, his gentleness, refinement, and feminine sense of propriety, were felt and realized in the privacy and confidence of these consultations. None felt them more, none has described them so well as Justice CURTIS has done in his graceful tribute to our illustrious Chief Justice since his death, in the Circuit Court of the United States, in Boston.

At the time the court was presided over by Chief Justice Taney, who had established, to the acknowledgment of all, that his commission was held by the same title. He was then seventy-three years of age, bowed by years and infirmity of constitution. In the administration of the order and procedure of the court there was dignity, firmness, stability, exactitude, and with these benignity, gentleness, grace, and right coming. The casual visitor acknowledged that it was the most majestic tribunal of the In these conferences, the Chief Justice usualUnion, and that the Chief Justice was the fit-ly called the case. He stated the pleadings and test to pronounce in it the oracles of justice. Justice CURTIS at the same time met seven associates Justices McLean, Wayne, Catron, McKinley, Daniel, Nelson and Grier.

All of these had passed the meridian of ordinary life before their junior associate had come to the bar. There was much stateliness in their appearance, and, with diversities of character, education, discipline, attainments and experience, all of them had passed through a career of honorable service, were men of strong resolution, large grasp of mind, and of honorable purpose. The reception of Justice CURTIS was cordial and hospitable, and with all of these his judicial career commenced and terminated with a single exception. The death of Justice McKinley made a vacancy, and that

facts that they presented, the arguments and his conclusions in regard to them, and invited discussion. The discussion was free and open among the Justices till all were satisfied.

The question was put, whether the judgment or decree should be reversed, and each Justice, according to his precedence, commencing with the junior judge, was required to give his judg ment and his reasons for his conclusion. The concurring opinions of the majority decided the cause and signified the matter of the opinion to be given. The Chief Justice designated the judge to prepare it. Justice CURTIS always came to the conference with full cognizance of the case, the pleadings, facts, questions, arguments, authorities. He participated in the discussions. His opinion was carefully meditated.

The same report shows that each member of this minority did examine the plea and recorded their opinion of it. It was agreed at a day in the term that the questions should be considered and each Justice might deal with them as his judgment dictated. The abstinence of a portion of the court on the one side, and the discussion by the others, was regulated by their own opinion as before expressed. And the facts being understood, no censure was deserved by any. My belief is, that Justice CURTIS misconceived the facts and supposed a portion of the court had concurred in deciding a case which they had before determined was not before the court. I make this statement in justice to him as well as to my other brethren. The state-just." ment I make is confirmed by Justice Nelson in a letter of his published by the biographer of the Chief Justice. In respect to the merits of the respective opinions, I have no design to say a word. They are marked with great ability, and are an honor to the court which was able to produce them. They will be considered here