114 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 



ay1io.sc vast store of learning and gracious dignity have proved so in- 

 valuable in the deliberations of this board, and whose loyal interest 

 in the Smithsonian Institution has been a source of inspiration to his 

 colleagues. 



Resolved, That we share in the grief of the nation at the passing 

 away of one who was at once a distinguished leader of the greatest 

 legal tribunal of our land, an eminent jurist, a patriotic citizen, a 

 shining example of Christian gentleness, and who also possessed so 

 charming a personality as a man and as a friend. 



Resolved, That we respectfully lender to the members of the family 

 of our Late associate, our sincerest sympathy in their great bereave- 

 ment. 



Resolved, That an engrossed copy of these resolutions be trans- 

 mitted to the family of the late chancellor. 



An adequate review of the life of that eminent jurist would re- 

 quire more space than can be devoted to the subject in the present 

 report of the board to Congress. Numerous eulogies in his memory 

 have been delivered by members of the bar of the Supreme Court 

 and by jurists throughout the land. It is fitting that selections from 

 some of these tributes should here be recorded. 



At a meeting <>(" the bar of the Supreme Court and of its officers on 

 December 10. 1!>10. Mr. Richard Olney, chairman of the meeting, and 

 formerly an associate of Chief Justice Fuller on the Board of Regents 

 of the Smithsonian Institution said: 1 



"Gentlemen of the bar: The death of the Chief Justice of the 

 United State- is an event of the first importance. Undoubtedly it 

 does not impress the general public as does the demise of a President 

 in office. It does not elicit the same manifestations of general sor- 

 row, it is not marked by the same profusion of funeral pageantry 

 and funeral oratory. It is nevertheless an occurrence of much 

 greater moment by reason both of the longer tenure of the Chief 

 Justice's office and of the unique character of its functions. No 

 single Presidency, probably no number of Presidencies combined, 

 has ever influenced the destinies of this country so vitally and so 

 largely as did the single Chief Justiceship of John Marshall. In 

 adding Melville W. Fuller to the roll of the country's Chief Justices, 

 therefore, one of our great Presidents exercised his highest preroga- 

 tive and performed the act of his official life most far-reaching and 

 enduring in its consequences. That President Cleveland's choice 

 was fortunate has long been generally conceded. It put at the head 

 of the national judiciary a well-educated scholar and a well-trained 

 lawyer; a man who had won distinction at the bar on his merits and 

 by his own efforts; who was not the lawyer of but one client or in but 

 one field, but was expert in all varieties of professional work; who, 



1 The extracts herein are from "Proceedings of the bar and officers of the Supreme 

 Court of tbe United States in memory of Melville Weston Fuller, December 10, 1910." 

 Washington: 1911, pp. 1-108. 



