advocate and judge, who would have considered this tribute by his professional brethren as the best possible reward for his long and arduous service.

"The early environment of Pierce Butler suited his ambition and talent. It was not ill fortune that in his childhood and youth he had to meet the rigorous demands of pioneer life in the northwest; that he had to win by self-denial and strenuous exertion the educational advantages which seem slender indeed as compared with the abundance of a later day. For he was in the midst of the opportunities of a fast developing community, where the very air quickened endeavor and the abilities and eager efforts of those endowed with physical and mental vigor received almost instant recognition. It was not ill fortune that he began the practice of the law in Saint Paul at a time when great enterprises were in the making, when legal talent held the key to a career of distinction and the standards of Bench and Bar were as high as in the older eastern States.

"The opportunities for practice had a most desirable variety, but, in accord with the traditions of the Bar, the highest prizes were to be won in the field of advocacy. Pierce Butler by temperament and aptitude was especially fitted for the contests of the forum. He had the fighting instinct, and his training developed rare skill in the use of the advocate's weapons. He soon had opportunity for public service as prosecuting attorney, and thus early secured wide recognition of his unusual talents. Favored by nature with a powerful physique, and with a distinguished mien aided by a deliberate and impressive manner of speech, he became a respected but dreaded antagonist. He was not content with showy and superficial successes with juries. He aimed at a thorough knowledge of the law and a complete mastery of facts, which especially commended him to the higher courts. He had a passion for exactness. He was not addicted to subtlety and he hated pretence. He recognized just

authority. He was faithful to every trust. He was rigorous in his self-discipline and spared no effort to realize his ideal of the careful and exact adviser, the zealous but accurate advocate, the intrepid vindicator of what he conceived to be the legal rights of those whose causes he espoused.

"It is not extraordinary that with the natural advantages of a noble bearing, with his indomitable will and courage both in attack and defense, with his unflagging industry and devotion to what he believed to be justice according to law, he rapidly rose to eminence, and his expert advice and assistance were sought in matters of the gravest importance of both private and public concern. There are not wanting those who disparage the training and experience of the successful advocate, ignoring the fact that among the varied activities of our democratic society there exists no harder school of discipline, no wider opportunity for the study of human relations or for the detection of faults and abuses, no more insistent demand for a sound practical judgment and for rectitude and fair dealing, than are found in the exacting daily work of the legal practitioner who tries to live up to the ethical standards of the best traditions of the Bar and thus to win the highest professional esteem, which is denied to the trickster and shallow pretender however otherwise apparently successful.

"It was with these qualities, and with that reputation, that Pierce Butler came to this Court at the height of his powers. He had already shown at this Bar his exceptional skill and thoroughness in the presentation of cases. In the Minnesota Rate Cases (230 U. S. 352) he presented one of the ablest, most comprehensive and most careful briefs ever submitted to this Court. On the bench, he at once demonstrated an extraordinary capacity for the sustained judicial labor which our work demands, and t the last he was faithful in every task, indefatigable, fear less, conscientious. At the conference table, he was eve

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ready to present and defend his views with keenness, always with earnestness, and not infrequently with the thrusts of wit and eloquence which brought vivid reminders of forensic battles. He was always thoroughly prepared by close study of records and, endowed with an extraordinary memory, he justly took pride in his ability to marshal facts and precedents in the most impressive

manner.

“It was natural that, with his success in winning his way to distinction in an expanding community, with his appreciation of liberty and law, he should have been eager to conserve both the essential authority of government and the freedom of enterprise. The former was necessary in order to insure the latter. His conservatism was rooted in profound religious convictions. It was always manifest that he had definite principles and he had no sympathy for those whose only principle was to be without principle. Cherish.ing the ideals of authority and certainty, he demanded adherence to precedent and deplored what he considered to be an undue flexibility in constitutional interpretation. As he put it,-'Generally speaking, at least, our decisions of yesterday ought to be the law of today.' He was a strong defender of the conception of property rights which he believed to be secured by the accepted construction of the due process clause. He believed in that conception us an essential stimulus to effort and as holding a better promise of social progress than governmental plans involving restriction of individual initiative. He believed in the right to choose one's calling, to pursue it unfettered, so far as consistent with good order and the equal rights of others, and to maintain and hold the material rewards of honest endeavor. In short, he sought to keep open the traditional path to individual achievement which he himself had trod.

"While solicitous for the public order and the authority of law, he was equally a stickler for the rights of those accused of crime to be protected against the abuses of

authority. He was zealous for the maintenance of just government but vehemently opposed to any action under any guise which he deemed to be arbitrary and capricious. He expressed his thought in the words of one of his opinions, which was quoted in one of the addresses at the meeting of the Bar: 'Abhorrence, however great, of persistent and menacing crime will not excuse transgression in the courts of the legal rights of the worst offenders.' United States v. Motlow, 10 F. 2d 657, 662. And in his dissent in the first Wire-tapping case, he thus voiced his conception of the appropriate interpretation of the great clauses of the Constitution for the safeguarding of personal liberty: "This Court has always construed the Constitution in the light of the principles upon which it was founded. The direct operation or literal meaning of the words used do not measure the purpose or scope of its provisions. Under the principles established and applied by this Court, the Fourth Amendment safeguards against all evils that are like and equivalent to those embraced within the ordinary meaning of its words. That construction is consonant with sound reason and in full accord with the course of decisions since McCulloch v. Maryland.' Olmstead v. United States, 277 U. S. 438, 487, 488.

"And with these views which I have endeavored briefly to interpret, as I think he would wish them expressedhe wrought to the end,-a man of deep-seated convictions, religious and political, with unfailing loyalty to basic principles as he conceived them,-a personality of rare force and determination, and yet with the kindliest disposition, the most generous sympathy, the warmest heart.

"It is not for us to speak of the sorrows that afflicted him, of his fortitude in severe trials, of the depth of his affection for those united to him by the strongest human ties. In the midst of judicial responsibilities which he was fully sharing with us, we were keenly aware of the

private burdens which pressed upon him and were so bravely borne.

"We mourn the loss of a great co-laborer. As the scenes of particular controversies swiftly shift, there abides the treasured memory of strength, of trained talent industriously applied, of unswerving integrity and fidelity, the virtues of the just judge, always an exemplar and an inspiration,-the virtues which make secure the foundations of the temple of justice."