EDWABD DOUGLASS WHITE 529 Federal Bench. As a rather striking antithesis to the religion and antecedents of the present Chief Justice, the first head of our national judicial tribunal, John Jay, was the grandson of a Huguenot refugee and attended school at New Rochelle, New York. In his rise to power and responsibility Justice White breaks another rather thoroughly established American precedent. He was not a poor boy, of humble, obscure parentage. On the other hand he comes from a family of circumstance, well known in the political annals of his state. His grandfather, James White, was a judge of western Louisiana, while his father, Edward White, served his state both as congressman and governor. In outline, the life and career of the Chief Justice may be readily summarized. He was bom in Parish Lafourche, Louis- iana, November 3, 1845. The name of his birthplace suggests his Franco-Romanic ancestry. He received his education in various Roman Catholic institutions — Mount Saint Mary's College, Emmittsburg, Maryland; Georgetown University, Georgetown, D. C; and the Jesuit College of New Orleans. Though a mere lad of sixteen years when the Civil War broke out he left college at Georgetown and enlisted as a private in the Confederate army. He was a member of General Beale *s staff during the siege of Port Hudson, and on its surrender in the sumimer of 1863, following the fall of Vicksburg, he was among the prisoners taken by the Union forces under General Banks. At the close of the war he took up the study of law in the office of Edward Bermudez who later became Chief Jus- tice of Louisiana. In 1868 he was admitted to the bar of his state. A few years later found him in politics, and he was elected to the state senate. His next preferment was judicial, in his appointment as Associate Justice of the Louisiana Su- preme Court. In 1890 and 1891 the lottery question furnished the burning issue in Louisiana politics, attending the expiration of the charter of the Louisiana Lottery Company. Mr. White re- entered the political field, allying himself with the reform forces, among whom he became a dominant figure before the
