And State Papers 



AT THE BANQUET TO JUSTICE HARLAN, THE 

 NEW WILLARD HOTEL, WASHINGTON, D. C, 

 DECEMBER 9, 1902 



Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: 



It is a peculiar privilege to be here to-night as 

 one of those gathered to do homage to a career 

 which has honored America. It is difficult to say 

 certain of the truths which must need be said with 

 out being guilty of truisms in saying them. It is 

 not an idle boast of this country when we speak of 

 the court upon which Mr. Justice Harlan sits as the 

 most illustrious and important court in all the civil 

 ized world. It is not merely our own people who 

 say that it is the verdict of other nations as 

 well. 



Mr. Justice Harlan has served for a quarter of a 

 century on that court. During that time he has ex 

 ercised an influence over the judicial statesmanship 

 of the country of a kind such as is possible only un 

 der our own form of government. For the judges 

 of the Supreme Court of the land must be not only 

 great jurists, but they must be great constructive 

 statesmen. And the truth of what I say is illus 

 trated by every study of American statesmanship, 

 for in not one serious study of American political 

 life will it be possible to omit the immense part 

 played by the Supreme Court in the creation, not 

 merely the modification, of the great policies through 

 and by means of which the country has moved on to 

 its present position. 



