Page:Justice and Jurisprudence - 1889.pdf/13

ii than the publication of an accessible treatise which points out the unconstitutional drift of the courts and public sentiment away from the Fourteenth Amendment. They entertain no suspicion that, in the opinion of considerate, thoughtful men, the value of such a work could be diminished by the consideration that the evidence of this unconstitutional trend was discovered in the course of a patient investigation of civil rights.

opens with a colloquy of absorbing interest between the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and a foreign jurist "void of the intellectual and social bias generated by slavery." The character of the foreign student's subsequent interview with an eminent representative of the American Press is an original conceit, executed with consummate skill, and the striking narrative which ensues is constructed with no apparent labor or art: it is interwoven with law and history&mdash;with philosophy and politics. There are no digressions, unnecessary descriptions, or long speeches; grace, incisive wit, sometimes bitter but never malignant sarcasm, distinguish the fanciful allegories of the journalist, as well as the more sober reflections of the Chief Justice. The characters in this dialogue are shrewd, observant, dispassionate men of the world, philosophers with large faculties harmoniously balanced. They seem fully to comprehend the elements of human nature and the laws of their combination, and display extensive knowledge of American politics.

The intercourse of the Chief Justice with the student is characterized by manly grace and dignity. In his presentation of the jurist to Mr. Blaine the Chief Justice is natural, graceful, and polite. His eulogy of Mr. Blaine, inwrapped in the encomium upon his work, is fraught with delicacy and elegance. There is a marvellous picturing power displayed in the imagery of the student's dream, a noble extravagance in the sudden conjuring up and representation of the spirits of Fame, Ambition, and Destiny, so weird and yet so majestic do they appear as they approach Mr. Blaine with thoughts intent upon his doom. The augury of his future, by the ministers of the fates, is a masterpiece.

The work abounds with important definitions, lofty