STANLEY MATTHEWS, OHIO.

(1824-1889.)

Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1881 to 1889. Born at Cincinnati, Ohio, July 21, 1824; died at Washington, D. C., March 22, 1889, 22, 1889, aged sixty-four. Graduated at Kenyon College at sixteen; settled in Maury county, Tennessee, teaching and studying law, and was admitted before twenty. Returned to Cincinnati in 1844, became assistant prosecutor, from which he dated his early professional success. Was editor of the Cincinnati Herald, 1846-48. Elected Common Pleas Judge of Hamilton county, Ohio, 1851; State Senator, 1855; served as United States District Attorney for Southern Ohio, 1858-61; commissioned Lieutenant Colonel Twenty-third Ohio and appointed Colonel of Fifty-seventh Ohio, 1861; resigned, 1863, to become Judge of the Superior Court of Cincinnati, having as associates Judges Storer and Hoadly; was one of counsel for President Hayes before the Electoral Commission, and made the principal argument in the Florida and Oregon cases, characterized by

Senator Edmunds as "foremost among the strictly legal considerations;" and with Charles Foster, is said to have made Hayes President and saved the country from civil war; succeeded John Sherman as United States Senator, 1877; was appointed, May 12, 1881, a Justice of the United States Supreme Court by President Garfield, to succeed Mr. Justice Swayne. His confirmation was bitterly opposed because of his supposed favor to corporations, which his severest critics afterwards owned were groundless. He had been nominated, but not confirmed, for the same position by President Hayes.

His decisions (104-127 U. S.), 229 in number, with fourteen dissents, the most notable being Kring v. Missouri (107 U. S., 221), show research, care, judicial capacity and independence. As a lawyer he took high rank. His mind was deeply original. He pioneered; studied principles more than precedents; surveyed the field of jurisprudence with the view of a statesman as well as a lawyer. In scholarship, comprehensive; in exposition, luminous; in illustration, apt; in reasoning, just; in judgment, honest; in conclusion, accurate,

WILLIAM MORRIS MEREDITH, PENNSYL

VANIA.

(1799-1873.)

"Of ten men who ran for the Supreme Judgeship of Pennsylvania in 1851," modestly says Jeremiah S. Black-and among them were himself and John B. Gibson-"he was, without doubt, the greatest and most distinguished man." Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 8, 1799; died there August 17, 1873, aged seventy-four. His father was a distinguished lawyer, and gave his precocious son every opportunity, graduating him, it is said, Bachelor of Arts at the early age of thirteen from the University of Pennsylvania, where he received second honor, being valedictorian. He was admitted to practice at seventeen, and elected to the Pennsylvania Legislature at twenty-five. When thirteen years at the bar, he was thrown in connection with the celebrated Girard will case, and business began to pour in upon him. Indeed, it is said that between 1840 and 1873 he was concerned in all important causes in Philadelphia. In 1834 he became President of the Select Council of Philadelphia, and continued such till 1839.

Was a member of the State constitutional convention in 1837; a prominent candidate for the United States Senate in 1845; Secretary of the Treasury under President Taylor in 1849; a member of the celebrated "Peace Congress" in 1861; consented to be Attorney General of Pennsylvania the same year, his acceptance in war time restoring confidence and causing the banks to take up the State loan. In his six years' administration of that office he exhibited rare ability. In 1870 he was appointed by President Grant senior counsel on the part of the United States of the Geneva arbitration tribunal, and assisted in preparing the American case, but resigned soon afterwards. Was again a delegate to the Constitutional convention in 1872, and was made presiding officer.

As a lawyer he occupied for many years the foremost rank in his native State, and was constantly engaged in important causes in the Supreme Courts of his State and Nation. As a ready and able legal debater, he was listened to earnestly and with great respect, and had few superiors in this country. Secretary Stanton regarded him in 1867 as the greatest lawyer in this country.

Great and Distinguished.

"In 1851, ten men were candidates for Supreme Judges of Pennsylvania,—then composed of five judges. Black, Gibson, Lewis, Lowrie, and Coulter were elected. Meredith was also a candidate, but was defeated. Of the result Judge Black modestly said: 'Of the whole ten, Meredith was, without doubt, the greatest and most distinguished man. Yet when the poll came he received the lowest vote, while I got the highest. This shows how fallible a test the popular judgment is on the merits of a candidate for a judicial office.'”—Article on Judge Black, by W. U. Hensel: May, 1890, Green Bag.

Regarded by Stanton as the Greatest Lawyer He Ever Knew.

“After Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, in 1868, had paid Matthew H. Carpenter a $5,000 retainer in the case of ex parte McCardle, and had listened to Carpenter's brief of about one hundred pages, of which Stanton ordered one thousand copies to be printed, he requested Carpenter to submit the brief and argument to William M. Meredith, of Philadelphia, whom Stanton regarded the greatest lawyer he ever knew. This Carpenter did. When finished Meredith said: 'Mr. Carpenter, how old are you?" Carpenter replied: 'Forty-three last December.' Meredith, evidently surprised, took him by the hand, saying: "That is a remarkable production, and you