Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 04.pdf/365

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The Green Bag.

' Come, come, you 're drunk.' Cassio, in return, at once thrust him through with his sword. Soon after, in his grief and remorse over the act, he said : ' Oh, thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil! ' What Cassio uttered, Yarborough may well repeat. He voluntarily stripped himself of all those balancing instincts by which even the worst of us continues to walk with some degree of steadiness among temptations; and in his case to be tempted, however slightly, was to fall." 1 Daniel Mulford Valentine, Associate Jus tice, was born in Shelby County, Ohio, on the 18th of June, 1830. He is the son of John W. Valentine, who was born in New Jersey, about fifteen miles west of New York City, on the 24th of October, 1804, and re moved with his father to Ohio in 1805. Judge Valentine is the great-great-grandson of Richard Valentine, who removed to New Jersey from Long Island in 1703. His an cestor, the seventh generation removed, was also Richard Valentine, who emigrated from England, and settled in Hempstead, L. I., in 1644. , Judge Valentine accompanied his father from Ohio to Tippecanoe County, Ind., in 1836, from there to Iowa in 1854, and to Kansas on the 5th of July, 1859. He re sided in Leavenworth one year; in Franklin County, principally at Ottawa, the countyseat, for fifteen years, whence he removed to Topeka, where he now lives. He was married to Miss Martha Root, in Adair County, Iowa, in 1855, in June of that year. He was County Surveyor for three years, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1858, served as County Attorney for two years, and a portion of that time was ex officio Judge of Adair County. Two years after his removal to Kansas he was elected a Representative to the Legisla ture from Franklin County, and in 1862 was returned as State Senator. In 1864 he was 1 The State v. Nixon, 32 Kas. 205; The State v. Mowry, 37 id. 369.

elected Judge of the Fourth Judicial District, in which capacity he served four years; at the end of the term was elected to the Su preme Bench, on which he has served con tinuously ever since. Judge Valentine has been a most indefati gable worker; his opinions written while on the Supreme Bench number over fifteen hun dred. He is beloved by all who have the honor to number him among their friends, and his repeated return to the highest court of the State, without opposition in nearly every instance, is an endorsement of his legal abilities and affability which tell of his character as a judge and a man much better than any language. He has a large family, nine children, who are all worthy of the name they bear; and his comfortable but un ostentatious home is a home in the strictest interpretation of what the word means, where a genuine welcome greets the many visitors who delight in being classed among the friends of the family. One of the most important questions ever brought for decision to the Supreme Court of Kansas was the one whether the Legisla ture has the power to authorize municipal corporations to aid railroad companies in the construction of their railroads. That question was presented in the case of Leav enworth County v. Miller, 7 Kas. 479, and decided in the affirmative, Judge Valentine delivering the opinion of the court. Another important question upon which the courts of the various States have dif fered is whether the defence of insanity in a criminal action must be established by the defendant by a preponderance of the evi dence, or whether the prosecution must show beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was of sufficiently sound mind to commit the offence charged. This question was presented to the Supreme Court of Kansas in the case of The State v. Crawford, 11 Kas. 32, where it was held that it de volved upon the State to prove soundness of mind, the opinion being delivered by Judge Valentine; and with respect to insanity gen