122 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 



Chief Justice White, in responding to the words of the Attorney 

 General, said: 



" Mr. Attorney General : The resolutions which you present are 

 consoling, since they show how poignantly our brethren of the bar 

 share with us the sorrow caused by the death of our cherished and 

 venerated Chief Justice. When the shadow which the bereavement 

 resulting from his loss casts upon the path of duty which lies before 

 us is considered, the resolutions are additionally consoling, since they 

 strengthen our conviction that, whatever may be our infirmities, we 

 may always rely upon the generous judgment of our brethren of the 

 bar if only we bring to the discharge of our duties the singleness of 

 purpo'se which ever characterized the judicial labors of our late 

 Chief Justice. 



" Those labors find an enduring memorial in the reported deci- 

 sions of the court rendered during the long period of his service. 

 Their potency, whether in enforcing and protecting individual right 

 or in perpetuating representative government by upholding our con- 

 stitutional institutions, has passed beyond the influence of praise or 

 blame. They have become the heritage of his countrymen, for 

 whose good he labored with untiring devotion. 



" The darkness of the valley of the shadow of death yet so ob- 

 scures vision as to render it impossible for me to attempt now to fix 

 the result of the labors of the Chief Justice or to define with accuracy 

 the scope of the blessings to his countrymen and to mankind which 

 have arisen from his work. I therefore do not attempt to supplement 

 the brief statement on that subject which you, Mr. Attorney General, 

 have so eloquently made. So, also, I shall forbear to comment upon 

 the wide attainments of the late Chief Justice, his engaging literary 

 fancy, his great familiarity with precedents, and his grasp of 

 fundamental principles. I leave these special attributes, as well as 

 the wider considerations which would be required to be taken into 

 view in order to symmetrically analyze the judicial work of the late 

 Chief Justice, not only because some other occasion would be more 

 appropriate and some more masterful hand than mine be required 

 to do justice to those subjects, but also because my puq^ose now is 

 only briefly to refer to some of the more endearing and admirable 

 personal traits of the Chief Justice which were manifested to those 

 associated with him in judicial labor, and at the same time to mark 

 the attributes from which those traits were derived and sustained. 



" Briefly, those qualities were his untiring attention to his judicial 

 duties and the dedication which he made to the efficient and wise 

 performance of those duties of every intellectual and moral power 

 which he possessed ; his love of justice for justice's sake ; his kindness, 

 his gentleness, associated, however, with a courage which gave him 

 always the power fearlessly to do what he thought was right, without 



