Mr. Justice Jackson. was never questioned. His character is that of a self-contained man, just, upright, temperate, with passions and emotions all his life so well in hand, under the mastership of a strong will, that they no longer need a touch of the rein; a man in whom the virtues are habitual. Unlike the most of such men, he is charitable to the halting, stumbling, and falling of those whose lives are a continual struggle against evil. To these, too, he is ready to award praise for genuine heroism, if, when they fall, they do also rise and try all there is in them to walk well in right ways. In his devotion to, and enjoyment of, hard work, — law, farming, and a keen business capacity in disposing of products, and invest ment of surpluses, — he has also a capacity for moderate unbending in social enjoyments around the festal board, occasional enjoy ment of a well-run race, with especial pride in the Belle Mead stock, of which great stock-farm he was joint-owner until two or three years ago, when he sold out to his brother, Gen. W. H. Jackson, a graduate of West Point, and one of Forrest's brigadiers. He has also one enjoyment that is like the skating of his schooldays. He keeps a pack of red fox-hounds, and with his friend and neighbor, Thos. H. Malone, one of the leaders of the Nashville bar, he is often found unbending by following the swift and long-winded red fox, or chasing some deer escaped from the deer-park of his brother's neighboring Belle Mead estate. His only other diversions are an occasional dip into literature, a game of chess, and, in the ennui of a summer resort, a game of whist or even euchre. Such is the man, — if fitted for that loftiest of earthly positions, well worthy to be set out as he is, — a man of clear, precise, prac
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tical business character; great self-contain ment; deep but not obtrusive religious faith; logical faculties, both acute and strong; broad philosophy, wide grasp of facts and prin ciples; close analytical and equally powerful synthetic ability; ripe scholarship; acquaint ance with the best literature, for use if ever needed; a fine fancy, too, if ever called for; perfect purity of morals, and a human capacity for innocent enjoyment of innocent amusements in rare moments of unbending. In this direction or that he may be excelled by this man or that. Few men will be found more fully or ripely rounded out from the centre, in all directions. Out of this fullrounded manhood has grown that success in life which has been called his " luck." When just such man was needed he was standing there, just such man; and his suc cess is the result of a past life of fidelity to himself and what was in him, trustworthi ness, and faithfulness to the trusts that lay upon his way, — cause and effect. This sketch is drawn with an admiring hand. None of any value was ever drawn by any other. Plumb-level indifference nor flaw-finding critical faculty ever drew faith ful sketch of any man. The justification for admiration grows out of mutual agreeable relations, and out of no servile human-idol worship; and out of the high place Judge Jackson held in the confidence of old Sena tors of both parties, as a capable, earnest, and able legislator; and out of the manner in which he drew to him as friends and admirers the ablest lawyers of America; and out of the culmination of all this, in his eleva tion by the clear judgment and honest pur pose of the President of the United States to the foremost place in the world, — a place upon the Supreme Bench of the United States.
