MELVILLE WESTON PULLEE WALCOTT. 117 



While he was at the bar no one harbored a suspicion that the 

 exigency of forensic controversy, in which he was almost constantly 

 engaged, could ever tempt him to aught that was unfair or unworthy 

 of the highest ideals of a noble and honorable profession. 



As Chief Justice, it is enough to say that with conspicuous fidelity 

 he fully and consistently maintained the best traditions of that high 

 office. He took a deep interest in the efforts to secure peace between 

 nations by international arbitration, and was appointed by our 

 Government to membership in the permanent court established in 

 1899 by the first peace conference, and sensed in that capacity. 



His character was marked by a gentle courtesy and consideration 

 which constantly illuminated and attended upon the discharge of his 

 important public duties, always marked his relations with the bar, 

 and earned that popular confidence which goes out to him whom the 

 people believe to be a merciful and considerate, as well as a just and 

 impartial judge. 



All this he was ; and, endowed by nature with talents not inferior 

 to those of his predecessors, possessed of attainments, training, and 

 experience adequate to the exacting requirements of his great office, 

 he filled it at all times in such a manner as to command the admira- 

 tion and respect of the bar and the grateful appreciation of his 

 countrymen. 



On the morning of July 4 last, at his beautiful summer home, on 

 the soil of the State in which he was born, and to which he remained 

 always deeply attached, his long, useful, and honorable life ended; 

 and when the sad announcement was made, we who had practiced in 

 the great tribunal where he so long presided felt a deep sense of 

 personal loss and personal bereavement that he had gone from us 

 forever. 



Resolved, also^ That the Attorney General be asked to present these 

 resolutions to the court and to request that they be inscribed upon 

 its permanent records. 



And that the chairman of this meeting be requested to transmit a 

 copy of the resolutions to the family of the late Chief Justice and an 

 expression of our sincere sympathy with them in the great and 

 irreparable loss which they have sustained. 



In seconding the resolutions Mr. Lee S. Overman said : 



" The people of this country, Mr. Chairman, have the greatest re- 

 spect for the law for its own sake, and there is no country in the 

 world which honors and respects its great expounders and adminis- 

 trators more than does ours; and the reputation of a great and 

 upright judge is one of the greatest inheritances of a free and happy 

 people. Our country has been blessed with a Supreme Court whose 

 able, just, and upright justices have added to her history a crown 

 of glory and been to the Republic and its people a shield of pro- 

 tection. 



" With untiring labor, with a broad grasp of the principles which 

 underlie the structure of our Government, in the light of their genius 

 they have traced back the principles of the law to their fountain 

 springs, and then, running them forward to their logical conclusion, 

 with their expansiveness and flexibility, they have so applied them to 



