116 ANNUAL KEPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 



the assurance that, whether his case or his presentation of it was 

 good, bad, or indifferent, he had a well-wisher at the head of the 

 court. It must not be understood that these occasions elicited any- 

 thing unusual or exceptional in the bearing of the Chief Justice. 

 On the contrary, the same considerate and gracious demeanor marked 

 his entire administration of his duties as chief of his court. No one 

 was snubbed, no one left the court with a right to feel that for some 

 occult reason he was not persona grata. During his Chief Justice- 

 ship the court at "Washington has been universally acclaimed as the 

 most agreeable tribunal in the country to appear before. Members 

 of the bar found there a forum in which the height of dignity was 

 combined with the height of simplicity, in which ceremony did not 

 degenerate into fussiness, and in which form was not exalted over 

 substance. All can not fail to miss the central figure, in whom perfect 

 kindliness of manner was joined to equal inflexibility in all essentials. 

 They who knew him more intimately, and as the man as well as the 

 magistrate, can not but grieve for the passing of a friend and comrade 

 whose unique and personal charm mere words are inadequate to ex- 

 press. Fortunate in his life and in the opportunities of a great career 

 clearly apprehended and worthily utilized, the Chief Justice was 

 also fortunate in the circumstances of his death, which found him 

 still in harness and still charged with the responsibilities of his 

 great office. ' When,' says Lord Bacon, ' a man hath obtained worthy 

 ends and expectations, the sweetest canticle is " Nunc Dimittis." ' " 



At the meeting referred to above the following resolutions were 

 adopted : 



Resolved, That the members of the bar of the Supreme Court 

 desire to express their profound regret at the death of Melville 

 Weston Fuller, eighth Chief Justice of the United States, and to 

 record their high appreciation of his life and character and of his 

 conspicuous and faithful service to his country. 



Born in the State of Maine, he went to Chicago at the age of 23, 

 when that great crty was in its infancy, and there entered upon his 

 long and distinguished professional career, which culminated in his 

 elevation to the most exalted judicial station in our Government. 



He secured the advantages of an academic and classical education 

 at Bowdoin College, and always retained the habits and tastes of the 

 student and scholar. 



He was a man of the most extensive and varied reading in the pro- 

 fession, in governmental and political discussion and in general 

 literature. 



He rapidly achieved a commanding position at the then exception- 

 ally brilliant bar of the city of his adoption, and for 32 years carried 

 on an extended and diversified practice in the courts of his State ; nor 

 did he infrequently appear before the great tribunal over which he 

 afterwards, and for 22 3 T ears, presided with such marked ability and 

 distinction. 



He was a man of singular beauty and purity of character. 



