Page:Bench and bar of Colorado - 1917.djvu/37



NTERESTING from an historical viewpoint and replete with personalities and numerous humorous sidelights, is the glimpse of the Colorado Federal Court, as afforded by the address of T. J. O'Donnell at the dedication of the new government building in Denver a year ago.

On that occasion Mr. O'Donnell, the present president of the Colorado Bar Association, in part said:

The first session of this court and of that court which was its contemporary as well as its predecessor, was held in the building then known as Ford's Hotel, 1626 Larimer Street, December 5, 1876

The event had been looked forward to by those who participated in it with an interest and enthusiasm far beyond that which animates this occasion. We celebrate a thing realized; they dedicated a hope. We dedicate an edifice of marble; they celebrated the creation of a state, for the opening of this court was the final act which evidenced the realization of the hopes of the heroic men who had builded the foundations and raised the superstructure of a new commonwealth, amid desert spaces and mountain wilds.

The glittering Centennial star had already taken its place in the constellation of the states, and this event marked the assumption, by the central planet, of one of the primary functions which hold them secure in their firmament.

Elmer S. Dundy, judge for the district of Nebraska, presided, but there was no bar. The genius of American institutions has no better illustration than the method by which the lawyers of the state were made members of the bar of the courts of these United States. Judge Samuel H. Elbert, who had been elected to the Supreme Court of the state, on its admission to the Union, was recognized, in his official