PROCEEDINGS ON THE DEATH OF MR. CHIEF JUSTICE FULLER. MELVILLE WESTON FULLER, Chief Justice of the United States, died at his summer residence in Sorrento, Maine, on July 4, 1910, while the court was in vacation. He was buried in Chicago, Illinois. A meeting of the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States was held in the Court Room on Saturday, December 10, 1910. On motion of Mr. A. S. Worthington, Mr. Richard Olney of Massachusetts, was elected Chairman and the Clerk of the Court acted as Secretary. Addresses were made by Mr. Olney, Mr. Stephen S. Gregory, Mr. Elihu Root, Mr. Lee S. Overman, Mr. Charles E. Littlefield, Mr. George E. Price, Mr. Marcus Pollasky, Mr. A. J. Montague, Mr. A. S. Worthington, Mr. William L. Marbury, Mr. Henry A. M. Smith and Mr. John S. Miller. A committee consisting of Mr. S. S. Gregory, Mr. Alton B. Parker, Mr. C. E. Littlefield, Mr. William L. Marbury, Mr. A. S. Worthington, Mr. George E. Price, Mr. A. J. Montague, Mr. Lee S. Overman, Mr. Henry A. M. Smith, Mr. Elihu Root, Mr. P. C. Knox, Mr. John W. Griggs, Mr. John W. Noble, Mr. J. M. Dickinson, Mr. U. M. Rose, Mr. John S. Miller, Mr. Frank P. Flint, Mr. Alexander Pope Humphrey, Mr. Henry M. Teller and Mr. Frank B. Kellogg, prepared and presented resolutions which were adopted and the Attorney General was requested to present them to the court. SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES. MONDAY, JANUARY 9, 1911. Present: THE CHIEF JUSTICE, MR. JUSTICE HARLAN, MR. JUSTICE MCKENNA, MR. JUSTICE HOLMES, MR. JUSTICE DAY, MR. JUSTICE LURTON, MR. JUSTICE HUGHES, MR. JUSTICE Van Devanter and MR. JUSTICE Lamar. Mr. Attorney General Wickersham presented to the court the following resolutions which had been adopted: Resolved, That the members of the Bar of the Supreme Court desire to express their profound regret at the death of MELVILLE WESTON FULLER, eighth Chief Justice of the United States, and to record their high appreciation of his life and character and of his conspicuous and faithful service to his country. Born in the State of Maine, he went to Chicago at the age of twenty-three, when that great city was in its infancy, and there entered upon his long and distinguished professional career, which culminated in his elevation to the most exalted judicial station in our government. He secured the advantages of an academic and classical education at Bowdoin College, and always retained the habits and tastes of the student and scholar. He was a man of the most extensive and varied reading in the profession, in governmental and political discussion and in general literature. He rapidly achieved a commanding position at the then exceptionally brilliant bar of the city of his adoption, and for thirty-two years carried on an extended and diversified practice in the courts of his State; nor did he infrequently appear before the great tribunal over which he afterwards, and for twenty-two years, presided with such marked ability and distinction. He was a man of singular beauty and purity of char acter. While he was at the bar no one harbored a suspicion that the exigency of forensic controversy, in which he was almost constantly engaged, could ever tempt him to aught that was unfair or unworthy of the highest ideals of a noble and honorable profession. As Chief Justice it is enough to say that with conspicuous fidelity he fully and consistently maintained the best traditions of that high office. He took a deep interest in the efforts to secure peace between nations by international arbitration, and was appointed by our government to membership in the permanent court established in 1899 by the First Peace Conference and served in that capacity. His character was marked by a gentle courtesy and consideration which constantly illuminated and attended upon the discharge of his important public duties, always marked his relations with the bar, and earned that popular confidence which goes out to him whom the people believe to be a merciful and considerate as well as a just and impartial judge. All this he was; and, endowed by nature with talents not inferior to those of his predecessors, possessed of attainments, training and experience adequate to the exacting requirements of his great office, he filled it at all times in such a manner as to command the admiration and respect of the bar and the grateful appreciation of his countrymen. On the morning of July 4 last, at his beautiful summer home, on the soil of the State in which he was born, and to which he remained always deeply attached, his long, useful and honorable life ended; and when the sad announcement was made we who had practised in the great tribunal where he so long presided felt a deep sense of personal loss and personal bereavement that he had gone from us forever. Resolved, also, That the Attorney General be asked to present these resolutions to the court and to request that they be inscribed upon its permanent records. And that the Chairman of this meeting be requested to transmit a copy of the resolutions to the family of the late Chief Justice and an expression of our sincere sympathy with them in the great and irreparable loss which they have sustained. THE ATTORNEY GENERAL then said: On the last day of the last term of this court CHIEF JUSTICE FULLER, responding to resolutions of the bar and observations in commemoration of Mr. Justice Brewer, spoke sadly of the procession of his brethren who had passed before him to their reward: "They were all men of marked ability, of untiring industry, and of intense devotion to duty, but they were not alike; they differed, as one star differeth from another star in glory." A few days later, and he too joined that procession, leaving but one survivor of that body of great judges— Miller, Field, Bradley, Harlan, Matthews, Gray, Blatchford and Lamar-over which he was called to preside when he succeeded Chief Justice Waite in October, 1888. "The oldest members of this court," said Mr. Justice Miller in speaking of Chief Justice Waite, "know of no one who was better fitted to discharge the administrative duties of the office of its Chief Justice, or who ever did so with more acceptability to his associates and to the public at large." 1 Mr. Waite's successor was to fully earn a like encomium. He was peculiarly well fitted to the discharge of those duties. As the presiding officer and spokesman of the court, during his long incumbency, his gentle, dignified bearing and kindly considerate manner won for him the 1126 U. S. Appx. |