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The Green Bag
of his term of office as District Attorney, he was elected on what was known as the “Know Nothing Ticket” as Attorney
General of the state—at that time being twenty-seven years of age. In the year 1870 he ascended to the
bench of the Supreme Court of Cali fornia, where he served two years as Associate Justice, subsequently becom ing Chief Justice, which position he held for eight years; as to his well merited distinction as a jurist one need only point to the evidence furnished by his various opinions to be found from
the others. I remember quite distinctly that when the electors assembled in Sacramento to discharge their oficial duties, Judge Wallace, seemingly familiar with the minutiae of those duties, himself wrote out the various necessary
official papers, and by his apparent ready comprehension of the law, took
control of affairs. While Judge Wallace was not an active man in the bustling
sense, he was so constituted that total abstention from participation in public affairs was wholly impossible; hence
Reports, to the 53d. There will be found, in imperishable shape, proofs
it was that his party afterwards pre vailed upon him to accept a nomination, which resulted in his election to the lower house of the Legislature of the
which account for and justify the remark
state.
which has more than once been made, that his presence upon the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States would have been a valued accession to that august tribunal. Upon the termination of his term upon the Supreme Bench, and in 1880,
A casual reader of these words may marvel at the acceptance by this man
the 39th volume of
the California
the Democratic party nominated and elected him as a Presidential elector in the Garfield-Hancock campaign. I was also then elected as an elector, and have a very vivid recollection which will abide with me through life, of the
speeches made by him during that campaign, characterized as they were by an eloquence, force and patriotism which must have exercised a powerful influence upon the voters of the state, and contributed largely to the election
of the Democratic electors. The parties, however, were so evenly balanced at
that time, that it was the first and only
time in the history of the state that the electoral ticket, as between the two
parties was divided, the Republican party electing one Republican elector, the Hon. Henry Edgerton, himself a man of rare persuasive power as a public speaker, and the Democrats electing
of an office, which in view of his con~ spicuous merits and his antecedent honors was of small importance. But not so, in the estimation of Judge
Wallace. He was born and reared in the school of Henry Clay, the great Commoner of Kentucky-drank in his inspiration from the tuition of that great statesman, and had the almost idolatrous regard for his chief that ever
moved and
animated
the followers
of Clay; from all of which there became embedded in his moral constitution, which governed him all through life, a deep and abiding loyalty to the rights of the people; this devotion was constant, unswerving and attended upon
every step of his political career. There‘ fore it was that when the call of the people of his immediate vicinage was heard, he responded with zeal, and being elected rendered such service in the Legislature as his descendants and
friends may well contemplate with gratification and pride. Important legislation, it was anticipated, would come before the then ensuing Legislature,
