Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/610

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

LL. B. before he was twenty-one years of age.

After graduation, Mr. Christian at once began practice in Richmond, his first law partner being C. C. McRae, a successful chancery practitioner. This association was terminated by the death of Mr. McRea, and after Judge George L. Christian retired fiom the bench, he forrned a partnership v-'ith his relative, which continued most pleasantly and successfully until terminated a quarter of a century later by death.

Air. Christian early displayed the char- acteristics which marked his professional career and made him a leader of the city and state bar. In presenting his cases he hewed close to the line, grasping the main point of his case and holding to it with tenacity. His statement of his case was so clear and convincing that it really amounted to an argument. In his argimients his clear- ness of statement was only surpassed by the depth and extent of his legal knowledge. He presented in a most forceful manner the particular points involved in each case, then traced from their foundation the principles upon which the decision must rest and loved to point out the reasons on which those principles were based. When from a mass of precedent and evidence he had evoked the basic principle on which he thought the case would turn, he, with splendid elTect, showed step by step the facts which brought the particular cause within the principles. Thus elucidated, creating from the case one of those valuable precedents that make the k'w the hand maiden of right and justice. With an almost perfect knowledge of legal principles, he tested each case by the founda- mentals of legal science, and if it stood the test he threw himself into its conduct and argument with all his powers. No labor was too great, no preparation too arduous for the proper vindication of his client's right and the enlightenment of the courts before which he practiced. Mr. Christian assumed and bore his professional obliga- tions with the devotion of a disciple to his religion, of the soldier to his cause. When he was entrusted with a case, it mattered not to. him how small the amount involved oi how trifling the reward, if he won. He thought only of the duty he had assumed and in its performance no trouble was too great, no sacrifice too large. This intensity of application to his professional work tend-

ed to shorten his days but his reward is v/ritten in the many cases decided in his favor and contained in the reports and de- cisions of Federal and state courts of Vir- ginia and the United States.

More than one judgeship was tendered Mr. Christian, only to be refused, and more than one offer of professorships in legal colleges were declined by him. In later life he was heard to regret that he had not ac- cepted a professorship of law, as the quiet of college life might have prolonged his life. Had he listened to these offers we now know that another name would have been added to Virginia's great teacliers of the law, a name to be classed with Tucker and Minor.

But his decision was wise, as in earlier years he needed the stimulus and excite- ment of legal battles to bring out his strongest and best qualities. But in later years he lived only for his family and for his profession. His only recreation was a love of horses and the sport of the chase. He gave to the delights and dangers of the hunting field the same intensity of interest that marked everything he did. But the sport of the chase, fond as he was of it, did not give him half the pleasure he derived from a well fought close legal contest, as the exercise of his faculties gave him all the pleasures of sport, the harder the case, the greater the pleasure of calling up all his reserves and exhibiting all his re- sources. Exemplifying Schiller's remark : "That the last perfection of our faculties is that their activity, without ceasing to be sure and earnest, becomes sport."

This remarkable professional career cut off in its prime, yet which won for Mr. Christian undying reputation as a lawyer, must not be divorced from his beauty of character. He will not be longer remem- bered for his legal learning, forensic tri- umphs or victories won than for his high sense of professional honor, his hatred for anything underhanded or tricky, the purity of his life and his humble devout acceptance of the precious tenets of the Christian re- ligion and of the particular church with which he was connected. Grace Protestant Episcopal, of which he was a pillar.

To this eminent law^'er, this high-minded gentleman, this incorruptible counsellor and student of legal principles that he strove to make synonomous with the [principles of jus-