ALLOTMENTS, ETC., OF THE JUSTICES OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, AS THEY STOOD DURING THE TERMS OF 1872-73, TOGETHER WITH THE DATES OF THEIR COMMISSIONS AND TERMS OF SERVICE, RESPECTIVELY. *The Fourth Circuit was vacant from May 7, 1873, to April 1, 1874, when a new allotment was made. NINTH. GON, NEVADA. IN MEMORIAM. BENJAMIN ROBBINS CURTIS. The Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States met in the court room in the Capitol, on Monday, October 12th, at 12 o'clock M., to pay respect to the memory of the late Benjamin R. Curtis. On motion the Hon. John A. Campbell was appointed Chairman, and D. W. MIDDLETON, Clerk of the Court, Secretary. On motion of Hon. P. Phillips, the chair appointed the following Committee on Resolutions, viz.: Reverdy Johnson, Philip Phillips, William M. Evarts, Benjamin H. Bristow, George H. Williams, John A. J. Cresswell, Richard T. Merrick, T. D. Lincoln and R. M. Corwine. The committee, through its chairman, reported the following resolutions: | the administration of justice and attracted the attention of the profession and of the public. Resolved, That we commemorate with no less satisfaction and applause the moral qualities which illustrate the whole professional service of our deceased brother—his justice to all, his kindness to associates, his fidelity to the courts and to the law, his scrupulous contribution of his best powers and his complete attention to every cause whose advocacy he assumed-his resolute maintenance of the just limits which separate the duties of an advocate and the duties of an adviser and of a declarer of the law upon professional opinions-his fidelity to society, to government, to religion, to truth-all these traits of duty, as the rule of his life, we present to the living lawyers and to their successors for their sincerest homage. THE BAR OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, assembled upon occasion of Resolved, That the Attorney-General be rethe death of their brother CURTIS, in testimonyquested to present these resolutions to the Suof their great affection and esteem for him in preme Court, and to move, in our behalf, that life, and of their sense of the great loss which they be entered upon its minutes; and that the the courts and the bar of the whole country and chairman of this meeting be requested to forthe community at large suffer in his death, ward a copy of them to the family of our deadopt the following resolutions: ceased brother: Resolved, That we find in the professional life. labors and honors of Benjamin Robbins Curtis, as displayed in an elevated and extended career of judicial and forensic duty and distinction, the imposing traits and qualities of intellect and character which, in concurrence, make up the true and permanent fame among men of a great lawyer and a great judge. Resolved, That the example presented by his life, of great natural powers faithfully disciplined and completely developed, expanded by large acquirements, and kept vigorous and alert by strenuous exercise, applied to noble uses, and effecting illustrious results upon a conspic uous theater of action and in manifold and diversified opportunities of public service and of public notice, is rare among lawyers as among men, and furnishes a just and assured title to permanent renown in the memory of his countrymen. Which resolutions were unanimously adopted. After the reading of the resolutions, Mr. Reverdy Johnson said: MR. CHAIRMAN: Before moving, as I propose to do, the adoption of the report of the committee, I beg leave to trespass for a few moments upon the time of the meeting. The event which has brought us together was a severe blow upon the heart of the entire profession. Of the many bereavements which we have had heretofore to deplore, no one has given us more sincere sorrow than the death of BENJAMIN R. CURTIS. In all respects he was a man to be loved and admired. As a friend he was warm and sincere; as a lawyer, learned and accomplished; as a judge, of transcendent ability. To those who knew him intimately (and I am of that number) his death is a great personal affliction. My acquaintance with him commenced when. in 1851, upon the recommendation of Mr. WebResolved, That in the special qualities which ster, he became one of the Associate Justices of mark him as a consummate forensic advocate the Supreme Court, and this acquaintance soon and as an authoritative judge, the structure of ripened into a close friendship which continued Mr. CURTIS' mind and its discipline combined unbroken to the last. And having been a very the widest and most circumspect comprehen- constant attendant on the court for the last six sion of all facts of legal import, however multi-years of his connection with it, and during the tudinous; a luminous and penetrating insight into the intricacies and obscurities of the most complex relations; and an efficacious power of reason, which produced the many admirable exhibitions of his faculties at the Bar and on the Bench, which for forty-two years have served seventeen years that have elapsed since his resignation, when, at every session, he appeared as counsel, I was afforded the best opportunity of forming an opinion of him as judge and lawyer. I think, therefore, that I have a just estimate of him in both characters. As a judge of 66 illustrated the power, dignity and honor of the legal profession as MR. CURTIS. His learning was profound and copious; his mind clear, earnest and powerful, and all his faculties were severely disciplined. His arguments at this bar, probably the most perfect models of forensic debate known to the profession, rested upon the fundamental principles of the science of law applied and analyzed by deep but seemingly easy thought, and enforced by a logic whose severe features were never disfigured by enfeebling ornament. An appreciative listener could not refuse to follow ment of his case was so plain, simple and per- this high tribunal, it is impossible to imagine | in this country or in England, have so faithfully one who could be more fully competent to discharge its high and arduous duties. With a wealth of learning always adequate to the occasion, he was ever felicitous in his application of it to the case before him. His judicial opinions-indeed, all of them-were models of a correct style. It may with perfect truth be said of them, what, upon an occasion like the present, he said of the opinions of the late pure and great judge, Chief Justice Taney, that they were characterized by purity of style and clearness of thought." His arguments at the bar possessed equally sterling merit. The statement of his case, and the points which it involved, were al-him in his course of reasoning, for his stateways transparently perspicuous. And when his premises were conceded or established, his con clusion was a necessary sequence. His analytical and logical powers were remarkable. In these respects, speaking from the knowledge of the great men whom I have heard during a very long professional life. I think he was never surpassed. And his manner of speaking was excellent. He ever suited "the action to the word, the word to the action," and never overstepped the modesty of nature." He was always calm, dignified and impressive, and, therefore, persuasive. No lawyer who heard him begin an argument ever failed to remain until he had concluded. Were I to select instances as exhibiting his highest judicial excellence and his high-earnest, and he clung to them with a firmness est forensic ability, I would point, for the one, to his dissenting opinion in what is known as the "Dred Scott case," and for the other, to his opening argument in the defense of President Johnson in the Impeachment Trial. Able as was the opinion of the majority of the court in that case, delivered by Chief Justice Taney, it was admitted at the time, I believe, by most of the profession, that the dissenting opinion of Judge Curtis was equally powerful. Lawyers may differ, as they have differed, as to which of these two eminent men were right, but they will all concede that the view of each was main- I did not rise for the purpose of pronouncing tained with extraordinary ability, whilst those a eulogy on MR. CURTIS- that I leave to others who knew them both will never differ as to the-but only to gratify a demand of my own feel. sincerity of their respective convictions. As to the other his defense of President Johnson-having listened to it, and having more than once read it carefully, I think I am justified in saying that it covered every question which the case involved, and, although it was afterwards enforced by his able associates, it of itself greatly contributed to the defeat of the impeachment. Nothing could have exceeded the clearness of statement, the knowledge pertinent to the contest, or the power of reasoning by which he maintained his conclusions. It was, I believe, and, having been one of the judges, I think I know, generally thought to be fatal to the prosecution. When such a man, lawyer and judge, in the inscrutable dispensation of Providence, is taken from the profession, they cannot avoid feeling that it is not only a private but a public calamity. And it is due to his memory that we should express the sense of our loss and the great regard we entertained for him as a man, a lawyer, and a judge. And this will be accomplished by adopting the report of the committee. I, therefore, move its adoption. Mr. Johnson was followed by Mr. R.T. Merrick, who said: MR. CHAIRMAN: Few men in any age, either and tenacity that nothing could affect save only the proof that they were erroneous. In the dark hours of our national trouble his voice was heard above the tempest of loosened passions vindicating the supremacy of law; and when the clash of arms had ceased but the storm still raged, he poured forth in this hall his appeal in behalf of a calm and considerate justice which should bear no sign of wrath or passion. The death of such a man is a severe loss to the country as well as the profession. ing. I knew him well and was honored by his friendship and a reasonable share of his confidence. I have listened to him with instruction and delight in public, and been greatly benefited by his counsels in private; and as I admired and loved him in life, I would place upon his grave a humble tribute of respect for his memory. The HON. John A. Campbell, Chairman, then addressed the meeting as follows: A natural sorrow exists in the judicial tribunals and among the legal profession of the Union by the event of the death of the late Justice CURTIS. His connection with the distribution of that justice which constitutions and laws define and regulate during a period of eventful history, has been so intimate, so useful to the country, and so honorable to himself and to his profession, that its severence occasions a pause and is felt as a calamity. To form and to maintain this connection was the aim of his life, the cherished and continuing aspiration of a mind and character well composed. To the members of the same profession, such a life, such a mind, such a character are objects of particular interest. His aspirations were favored in his birth place, by his education and by his associations. | with the majority of the court. He did not disThe history of Massachusetts just before the sent often, and his dissent was usually with a Revolution, during the Revolution, and until large minority-rarely, if ever, did he stand the time that Justice CURTIS received his im- alone. They show that in some of the most impressions and impulse, was determined in a great portant cases, he prepared the opinions of the measure by its legal profession. During that court. That these opinions embraced intricate period its courts were occupied by men of ex questions of constitutional law, of admiralty jutraordinary endowments, and of large and liberal risdiction, of commercial law, of the law of pat culture in law, jurisprudence, philosophy, scients, of common and equity law. The range of ence and literature. The profession of the law was not misdescribed by the term of a learned profession. Dane and Parsons and Dexter; Otis and Story and Wilde; Parker and Shaw, had stamped their names and characters upon it. The competitors that Justice CURTIS had to encounter were Webster, Choate, Loring, Bartlett and others, whose impulses were the same as his own. The scrutiny his arguments had to experience was that of Story, Parker, Shaw, Wilde, Putnam, Dewey, Metcalf, Sprague. His first conviction must have been that, to consummate his purpose, he must need to "Pitch his project high: sink not in spirit." His first counsel to himself, "Let thy mind still be bent, still plodding where, And when, and how the business must be done." After twenty years of labor on this "project" and under this counsel, in 1851 he was selected, as was the report of that day, by Mr. Webster, as the fittest person to fill the vacancy, occasioned by the death of Justice Woodbury, in the Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. Webster said he wanted a full term of lifelong service. He called for Justice CURTIS in the meridian of professional life. The appointment came to Justice CURTIS. He was not required to pursue it or to beseech it. It came to him by a divine right-as the fittest. At the time the court was presided over by Chief Justice Taney, who had established, to the acknowledgement of all, that his commission was held by the same title. He was then seventythree years of age, bowed by years and infirm ity of constitution. In the administration of the order and procedure of the court there was dignity, firmness, stability, exactitude, and with these benignity, gentleness, grace, and right coming. The casual visitor acknowledged that it was the most majestic tribunal of the Union, and that the Chief Justice was the fittest to pronounce in it the oracles of justice. Justice CURTIS at the same time met seven associates Justices McLean, Wayne, Catron, McKinley, Daniel, Nelson and Grier. All of these had passed the meridian of ordinary life before their junior associate had come to the bar. There was much stateliness in their appearance, and, with diversities of character, education, discipline, attainments and experience, all of them had passed through a career of honorable service, were men of strong resolution, large grasp of mind, and of honorable purpose. The reception of Justice CURTIS was cordial and hospitable, and with all of these his judicial career commenced and terminated with a single exception. The death of Justice McKinley made a vacancy, and that vacancy was supplied by one recommended by the Justices-Justices Catron and CURTIS bearing their recommendation to the President. The Reports of Howard disclose that during his judicial term he was generally in accord his professional experience in Massachusetts had been wide and comprehensive. His professional studies had embraced the principles of law and the understanding of jurisprudence, and the court rested with confidence upon his ability to expound principle and procedure. The opinions show elaboration, a mastery of facts, authorities and arguments, and a skillful employment of precise and accurate statement and discussion. But these Reports exhibit an imperfect history of the duties actually performed. The duties of the Justices of the Supreme Court consist in the hearing of cases; the prep arations for the consultations; the consultations in the conference of the judges; the decision of the cause there, and the preparation of the opinion and the judgment of the court. Their most arduous and responsible duty is in the conference. It was here that the merits of Justice CURTIS were most conspicuous to his associates. The Chief Justice presided, the deliberations were usually frank and candid. It was a rare inci dent in the whole of this period, the slightest disturbance from irritation, excitement, passion or impatience. There was habitually courtesy, good breeding, self-control, mutual deference. In Judge CURTIS, invariably so; there was nothing of cabal, combination, or exorbitant desire to carry questions or cases. Their aims were honorable and all the arts employed to attain them were manly arts. The venerable age of the Chief Justice, his gentleness, refinement, and feminine sense of propriety, were felt and realized in the privacy and confidence of these consultations. None felt them more, none has described them so well as Justice CURTIS has done in his graceful tribute to our illustrious Chief Justice since his death, in the Circuit Court of the United States, in Boston. In these conferences, the Chief Justice usually called the case. He stated the pleadings and facts that they presented, the arguments and his conclusions in regard to them, and invited discussion. The discussion was free and open among the Justices till all were satisfied. The question was put, whether the judgment or decree should be reversed, and each Justice, according to his precedence, commencing with the junior judge, was required to give his judgment and his reasons for his conclusion. The concurring opinions of the majority decided the cause and signified the matter of the opinion to be given. The Chief Justice designated the judge to prepare it. Justice CURTIS always came to the conference with full cognizance of the case, the pleadings, facts, questions, arguments, authorities. He participated in the discussions. His opinion was carefully meditated. He delivered it with gravity, and uniformly it was compact, clear, searching, and free from all that was irrelevant, impertinent, or extrinsic. As a matter of course, it was weighty in the deliberations of the court. The older judges spoke of this period with great satisfaction. Justice | TIS by those who did not concur with him. I Nelson, in a letter written within the last year, can speak positively as to some, and shall speak said to me that it was the happiest period of his as to myself. Our relations had been cordial judicial life, and alludes affectionately to the and kindly. He informed me by letter of his share of Justice CURTIS in these proceedings. resignation. I expressed to him my sincere reThe Chief Justice so regarded it. The rever- gret for the occurrence, and I testified to the adence of the junior Justices was gratefully felt miration and respect I bore for his ability and and recognized by him. integrity and usefulness in the court. These relations remained undisturbed by time, distance, the corroding effects of sectional strife and civil war, until the hour of his lamented death. The last event at the spring term of the year 1857, was the delivery of the dissenting opinion of Justice CURTIS, in the case of Dred Scott. The court adjourned then, and it proved to be the last event in the judicial career of Jus tice CURTIS. I have never supposed that his resignation had any connection with that or any other occurrence in the court. There was nothing in the deliberations in that cause to distinguish it from any other. Upon the argument in 1856, it was found there was a diversity of opinion upon the matter proper to be decided. A plea in abatement to the jurisdiction, which presented the capacity of a person of African descent to be a citizen, had been demurred to and the plea rejected. There was trial and judgment for the defendant, declaring the plaintiff to be a slave. The question was: could he insist upon an error in the sustaining of his own demurrer after trial and judgment? At that term, Chief Justice Taney, Justices Wayne, Daniel, Nelson and CURTIS, held the affirmative and constituted a majority. A reargument was ordered, and at the next term, Justices McLean, Catron, Nelson, Grier and Campbell held the negative. Justice Nelson doubted at the first argument, and moved for a re argument, and upon that joined the minority, and so the plea in abatement and the questions arising upon it in the opinion of the majority of the court were not before the court. The case, as reported in 19 Howard, S. C. R., discloses that each member of this majority held to this opinion, and that neither of them in their separate or concurring opinions examined the merits of the plea or passed an opinion on it. My personal intercourse with Justice CURTIS after his resignation was limited, and I had but little contact with his subsequent professional life. During the period of his connection with the court, his ambition seemed to be to associate his name honorably and permanently with the administration of justice in this country, and for this end he sought to understand the whole science of law and procedure, and to have a clear conception of a legitimate internal policy for the Union. His ambition imposed a necessity for labor, continual improvement, habitual intercourse with judicial and public administration, and the discussion of constitutional and legal questions, and oversight and counsel in the affairs of individuals and communities. To reach the eminence to which he aspired and to which he attained he must have realized to himself "This life of mine, Must be lived out, and a grave thoroughly earned." His plan was pursued with constancy, and the lives of few show more consistency and symmetry. The prizes of ambition he accepted were within the scope of this aim; those he relinquished or neglected were inconsonant. His tasks of real life were determined, and to these tasks he confined his appointed work. In his course he found that the justice a state or a nation can distribute bears a small proportion to the demands of society for justice. He found, likewise, that justice, though the chief, is not the only virtue-that it is the ministry to reason and the master of human action, but is not all of humanity. So, in his onward progress to the goal he had set before him, besides virtue and knowledge, public reputation for incorrupt integrity, large and useful endowments of mind, influence with courts and tribunals, he also acquired faith, knowledge of religion, and entered into a close communion with his God; and thereby he earned his grave and his rest from his labors. The same report shows that each member of this minority did examine the plea and recorded their opinion of it. It was agreed at a day in the term that the questions should be considered and each Justice might deal with them as his judgment dictated. The abstinence of a portion of the court on the one side, and the discussion by the others, was regulated by their own opinion as before expressed. And the facts being understood, no censure was deserved by The tribute which the courts and the memany. My belief is, that Justice CURTIS mis-bers of the legal profession from different States conceived the facts and supposed a portion of the court had concurred in deciding a case which they had before determined was not before the court. I make this statement in justice to him as well as to my other brethren. The statement I make is confirmed by Justice Nelson in a letter of his published by the biographer of the Chief Justice. In respect to the merits of the respective opinions, I have no design to say a word. They are marked with great ability, and are an honor to the court which was able to produce them. They will be considered hereafter as a link in the chain of historical events, and justice will be done to all parties connected with them. have willingly rendered to his memory, expresses to his family, to his friends, and to the country that "Blessings are on the head of the just." The resolutions were thereupon unanimously adopted, and the meeting adjourned. Mr. Attorney-General Williams moved the court that these proceedings be entered of record on the minutes of the term, and made the following remarks: MAY IT PLEASE THE COURT: BENJAMIN R. CURTIS, formerly an Associate Justice of this court, and one of the most distinguished members of its bar, departed this life on the 15th day of last month; and his professional associates here, I am not aware that there was any hostility feeling like a family bereft of its head, have exor unkindness felt or expressed to Justice CUR-pressed the sense of their bereavement in fitting |