CHIEF JUSTICE MORRISON REMICK WAITE

HIS HOME IN WASHINGTON

HE excellent full-length portrait of the late Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite, which forms our frontispiece, will be studied with peculiar interest at this time, as the engraving is from the very last photograph ever made of the great jurist, less than two weeks prior to his sudden death on the morning of March 23, 1888. He had been persuaded, somewhat against his inclinations, to visit a photographer by an artist who was engaged on an important painting and who accompanied him to the gallery; and the picture thus secured is considered the best ever taken of him in his judicial robes. It reflects with singular force the genius, character and dignity of the man who for fourteen years was the most conspicuous figure in the jurisprudence of this nation, and perhaps not less conspicuous in respect to the jurisprudence of the whole world.

In personal appearance Morrison R. Waite was the typical chief justice of a vast nation, and his features will long live in the public memory. His well-poised, classically shaped head was massive in its proportions, and thickly covered with hair handsomely flecked with gray. His eyes were dark and piercing with a kindly expression, his mouth large, his upper lip cleanly shaven, and heavy well-trimmed whiskers of the same hue as his hair draped a chin indicative of firmness and generosity. He was of medium height, with broad shoulders compactly built; standing erect, as straight as an arrow, and was very fond of walking-his step being light as that of a woman, and all his movements quick and decisive; his whole bearing was one that commanded instant respect wherever he appeared. His physical health was perfect, and he had the varied knowledge and the intellectual tastes and aptitudes as well as the perfect manners which graced his position.

He was fifty-seven years of age when he was elevated to the important. office through which he became the honored and beloved custodian of the liberties of sixty millions of people-and such was his character that he

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was chosen without a dissenting vote. This last clause reads like fiction, but it is none the less truth. The circumstances attending so phenomenal an event in American history are invested with unusual charms. Waite was a lawyer, sensible and studious, with an immense and lucrative practice, and he had been for a series of years the acknowledged leader of the Ohio bar. In the winter of 1874 he was the choice of both political parties as delegate to the Ohio constitutional convention, at Cincinnati, and was elected president of the convention. His nomination on the 19th of January, 1874, to the chief justiceship took the country by surprise. The office had been wholly unsought. When the news reached the Ohio convention, then in session, with Mr. Waite presiding, there was an uproar of applause. One gentleman moved for the appointment of a committee of five to draw up congratulatory resolutions. "The chair rules the motion out of order," said Mr. Waite. During the remainder of the day it was impossible to quell the enthusiasm; but the calm, unruffled demeanor of the presiding officer was never once disturbed. As weeks rolled on it became apparent that neither the inquisitive public nor the newspaper press could find any flaw in his record. In the Senate it was said that "not a breath of suspicion or reproach had ever been cast upon him," and one senator declared that he "did not believe a man existed whose character was more spotless or whose sense of honor and justice was more acute." The nomination was discussed for about an hour in the Senate, during which speeches were made by Mr. Sumner, Mr. Sherman, Mr. Edmunds, and Mr. Thurman. The vote was taken by yeas and nays, and the result was never equaled in its favorable character within the memory of the oldest senator. The nominee received every vote cast. Sixty-three senators voted for his confirmation and not one against him. The new chief justice took the oath of office on the 4th of March, 1874, and immediately entered upon his work. Without a day's experience on the bench he came to preside over the highest tribunal on earth, and met all its demands acceptably. He represented, says one eminent lawyer, the dignity and the public decorum that should exist in such courts, and at the same time exercised every kind courtesy and every generous discretion toward the bar and his associates. He presided, says Melville W. Fuller, with dignity, but with winning courtesy, and though he pushed the business in hand with rapidity, he did this with a grace that eluded all offense. He exhibited no lack of will power whenever the exercise of it was necessary, but unassuming gentleness and the highest manhood without pretense, were uniformly in the ascendant. He was a public surprise in his promotion, and a public benefactor in the discharge