MELVILLE WESTON FULLER WALCOTT. 121 



to escape serious criticism. This is just what Marshall, Taney, 

 Chase, and Waite, and their associates did with the great questions 

 of their daj^s; and so Chief Justice Fuller will stand forth in history 

 as a worthy successor of the great Chief Justices who preceded him. 



" The labors of the judge are along lines that make for peace — for 

 the security of life, liberty, and property. It is his work to settle, in 

 a peaceable manner, controversies that would otherwise result in the 

 triumph of fraud, violence, and oppression and lead to war. The 

 judge is essentiallj^ a peacemaker, and when we reflect that Chief 

 Justice Fuller devoted 22 years of his life to this work may we not 

 with propriety apply to him the beautiful beatitude which fell from 

 the lips of Him who is the Judge of all the earth, in His sermon on 

 the mount : ' Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the 

 children of God ' ? " 



The Supreme Court, on January 9, 1911, adopted resolutions 

 identical with those adopted by the bar of that court on December 10, 

 1910. On that occasion the Attorney General of the United States, 

 Mr. Wickersham, in presenting the resolutions, reviewed the more 

 important decisions of the court under Chief Justice Fuller, and in 

 conclusion said: 



" * * * The Talmud compares the study of the law to a 

 huge heap of dust that is to be cleared away. ' The foolish man says, 

 *' It is impossible that I should be able to remove this immense heap. 

 I will not attempt it." But the wise man says, " I will remove a little 

 to-day, some more to-morrow, and more the day after, and thus in 

 time I shall have removed it all." ' It was in this spirit that Chief 

 Justice Fuller toiled during the years that he presided over this 

 court. Much of the work of all courts is of but transitory importance, 

 save in so far as it keeps ever burning the sacred lamp of justice to 

 lighten the footsteps of men. But the labors of this tribunal are 

 essential to the preservation of the liberties of a free people. In the 

 largest proportion of causes submitted to its judgment every decision 

 becomes a page of history and may become a part of a rampart 

 against anarchy. To this court men look for the maintenance of 

 those rights which our forefathers wrung from a reluctant monarch 

 at Runnymede 800 years ago, M'hich are now embodied in the Con- 

 stitution of the United States, and which are as essential to the pro- 

 tection of the citizen against the tyranny of a hydra-headed tyrant of 

 the future as they were against the monarchs of the past. 



" The labors of the eighth Chief Justice are over, and his work in 

 this court is submitted to the judgment of men. As he said of Jus- 

 tice Brewer, ' he died suddenly, but not the unprepared death from 

 which we pray to be delivered,' and having finished his course in 

 faith he doth now rest from his labors." 



