BENJAMIN ROBBINS CURTIS. 



477 



it is impossible to imagine one who could be more fiilly competent to 

 discharije its hisrh and arduous duties." In the autumn of 1857, Judsje 

 Curtis retired from the bench, and resumed his practice at the bar in 

 the city of Boston. The announcement of his resignation called forth 

 expressions of regret on the part of his associates, and of the profession 

 from one end of the country to the other. 



On his return to the bar, he did not wait for clients. He had won 

 a national reputation. His advice and assistance were solicited from 

 all parts of the country. lie devoted himself exclusively to his pro- 

 fession. He had no taste and no ambition for political life. It was 

 not in his nature to be a partisan. His intimate friends were aware 

 that he had carefully considered the grave questions which from time 

 to time agitated and divided the country, and that on these questions 

 he entertained definite and decided opinions, which he neither obtruded 

 nor sought to conceal. He had amassed large stores of general in- 

 formation, but it was only as a profound jurist and able advocate that 

 he was known to the world. He desired to be known in no other way. 

 Nature intended him for a lawyer. In him were combined the 

 moral qualities and the intellectual powers essential to a great advocate 

 and a great judge. These powers he had assiduously disciplined 

 and developed. No matter how multitudinous the f;\cts of his case, or 

 how perplexing the details, his statement was perspicuous and exact. 

 His argument was pure logic. He never indulged in rhetorical dis- 

 play, or used two words where one would do. His style was simple, 

 and his argument was as intelligible to the uneducated juror as to the 

 learned judge. 



The life of the lawyer and of the judge is generally spent in settling 

 questions with which the public does not concern itself. It rarely 

 happens to either to be connected with events to be mentioned ia 

 history. In the Dred Scott Case, as it is familiarly called, a ques- 

 tion arose, upon which the country was divided, and it was the fortune 

 of .Judge Curtis to differ from the majority of the court. He felt he 

 had a duty to perform and he did not shrink from it. He delivered 

 an opinion which will stand as a monument to the firmness, the learn- 

 in or, and the loijic of its author. He was also the leadins: counsel in 

 the defence of President Johnson. When the prosecutors had put in 

 their evidence, he in the opening argument announced the principles 

 on which the defence was to rest, and maintained them with such con- 

 summate ability, that in the opinion of most competent judges, that 

 argument was fatal to the prosecution. He was followed by his able 

 associates, but it is generally conceded by those who attended the trial 



