The Green Bag Volume XXII
January, 1910
Number 1
Mr. Justice Lurton R. JUSTICE LURTON, whose presence now adds to the dignity
is suffused with the glow of life's sunset, would be most regrettable. The follow
of the United States Supreme Court, is the fourth Confederate soldier to
ing verses were not inaptly quoted by the New Y0rk_‘C0mmercial:—
be raised to the bench of our highest tribunal, the other three having been Justices Howell E. Jackson, Edward
D. White, and L. Q. C. Lamar.
It
would never be suspected from his
springy step and infectious laugh that
Cato learned Greek at eighty; Sophocles Wrote his grand (Edipus; and Simom'des Bore ofl the prize of verse from his oompeers When each had numbered more than four
score years;
.
.
.
Goethe at Weimar, toiling to the last, Completed “Faust" when eighty years were
he is the oldest man who ever took a past.
seat there. and
While he has white hair
moustache,
signs of age.
he
shows
no
other
In purity of character,
in legal ability, in social charm, he has qualifications for the office which could not possibly be surpassed in a younger
man. Objections have of course been made
I
These are indeed exceptions; but they show How far the gulf-stream of our youth may flow Into the Arctic regions of our lives Where little else than life itself survives.
Judge Lurton possesses a quick per~
ceptive faculty and
keen reasoning
to Mr. Justice Lurton’s age by those who call attention to the fact that
powers, which render his opinions close, broad, exact, and logical. His decisions are marked by sagacity, diligent re
Justice Story was made a Supreme Court Justice at the age of thirty-two,
search and learning. President Taft’s statement that he is entirely satisfied
and the majority of those appointed
of his impartiality in dealing with every
to the Court have been between forty
subject connected with capital, labor,
and fifty years old. But unlike some former appointees, he is fitted to enter at once upon his new duties. He is
and the “trusts,” may be accepted as conclusive. Chief justice W. D. Beard of the Supreme
also in possession of full vigor, and it
has been well observed that if he lives to perform active duty for twenty
farewell banquet in Nashville, December 23, remarked that Judge Lurton’s “ap
years more he will not be so old as Chief Justice Taney was when he died.
pointment was a recognition of his ability as a jurist. He will be the peer
Court of Tennessee,
at the
Any departure from those traditions
of the most learned man,
which have made our highest tribunal the more impressive because its wisdom
profound jurist, upon the greatest tri bunal in the world."
the
most
