John Forrest Dillon decided by the Supreme Court, as they appeared in the reports, making notes as he proceeded and placing each under its appropriate head; that his sole
purpose in doing this was to familiarize himself with what the court had decided, in order that he might not run contrary thereto, and be in harmony therewith;
453
(7th of Stiles) 363. Those of the federal court will be found in the five volumes of Dillon's Circuit Court Reports. There
they stand as perpetual memorials of a great judge and as beacon lights in judicial history. “On account of his rapidly increasing practice in New York," says Mr. Stiles,
that he kept this up and added to it as
"he felt obliged to relinquish his pro
additional
that it
fessorship in Columbia College, which he
then occurred to him that by a little remoulding and enlarging it might be useful to the profession. This he did,
had filled with eminent distinction.
reports appeared;
and that is the way the lawyers of Iowa
came to have what at that time was of the greatest convenience to them. I cannot refrain from remarking as I pass that if all our judges would so qualify themselves we should have far less incongruity in our jurisprudence. "When at the age of thirty-three he came to be judge and afterward Chief
In a comparatively few years his client age embraced some of the largest inter
ests of the metropolis, and he came to be regarded as one of its ablest lawyers, and one of the most profound jurists of the American bar. By high authority he was ranked as one of its foremost leaders, and, taken all in all — the depth
and comprehensiveness of his learning, his distinction as a judge, the accuracy
Justice of the Supreme Court, he brought to that bench, notwithstanding his lack of years, equipments of the highest
of his opinions, his strength of argument, his judicial - aptness, his fame as an author, his felicity of speech, his general literary merit, in short, the tout ensemble
order;
of his varied
his fitting experience on the
accomplishments — he
district bench; a thorough knowledge of the state, her history and people; a
may justly be so regarded.
virile and well-poised intellect; a thor
career," continues Mr. Stiles, “was as a
oughly judicial temperament; a keen
member of the commission appointed under an act of the legislature of New York to prepare the charter for the greater city of New York; that is to say, the preparation of the charter uniting into one city three existing cities (New York, Brooklyn and Long Island City), each living to a consider
and unerring sense of justice; a mind
"An important work in his professional
disciplined by years of the closest legal study, and, as the result of scholarly promptings and wide reading, enriched with varied learning. “His opinions from that bench, as well as from that of the United States Circuit Court are, by reason of his name and fame, as well as the general sound
able extent under local laws and each with different charters; and that would
ness of the opinions themselves, deferred to as authority by all the courts of this
also bring into the enlarged city a con siderable area of territory besides that
country.
still remaining under town and village government. These different commun
Those of the state Supreme
Court run through fourteen volumes of
the Iowa Reports. The first case is that of Welton v. Tizzard, 15 Iowa (7th of Withrow) 495; the last one, Green'wald v. Metcalf-Graham 6:’ Co., 28 Iowa
ities to be consolidated into one were located upon three different islands and upon the mainland, with distinct histories and antecedents. The problem
