Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 02.pdf/365

 Rh

328

grandee looking out from a frame of Velas quez. He was erect and soldierly, always ele gantly dressed; his carriage was grand and dignified; his complexion was ruddy, his hair gray and waving; his brow and nose were noble, his eyes were dark-gray and piercing; he wore no beard save a grizzled mustache. His tragic fate has kept his memory green. His contemporaries love to call up in the mind's eye that heroic form on the deck of the sinking ship, the central figure of a group of dependent and timorous friends, and to recall his last words, so typical of the grand nature, " If we are to go down, let us go down bravely." His piteous end ing won a unanimous expression of sorrow, admiration, and respect from the bench and bar of our State. The Court in their me morial speak of his candor, patience, courtesy, kindness, tenderness, his " manly and gen erous nature," and say, " his death is felt by us as a family affliction." There is a mag nificent portrait of him in the chamber of the court; and a fine one, prefixed to New York Reports, is reproduced here. Charles James Folger. Judge Folger was born in Nantucket in 18 18. In 1830 the family removed to Ge neva, N. Y., where he always afterward lived. He was graduated at Geneva College, now Hobart College, at the age of eighteen, at the head of his class. Some of his friends used to say that the class consisted of the judge alone; but he always insisted that there was one other, and that the question who was at the head depended on which way the class was counted. In 1844 he was appointed Common Pleas Judge for Ontario County, and in 1851 was elected county judge of that county. He was State Sena tor from 186 1 till 1869, was President pro tetn. four years, and chairman of the Judici ary Committee during the whole period. In 1869 he resigned to accept the post of as sistant treasurer of the United States at New York City, and resigned that place in 1870 upon election to the Court of Appeals.

In 1867 he was chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the constitutional convention which devised the remodelled court. On the death of Chief-Judge Church in 1880. he was appointed to fill the vacancy, and in the fall of that year was elected to that place. Pres ident Garfield offered him the position of Attorney-General, but he declined it. On President Arthur's accession, he accepted the office of Secretary of the Treasury. He was defeated for governor in 1882. He died in 1884, at the age of sixty-six, worn out in the public service, in a department not the most congenial to him, — a vic tim to his sense of duty, who gave his life for his country as fully as if he died on the battle-field in defence of her honor or her rights. What I shall say of him may be tinged by personal affection and reverence, for I had the honor and the pleasure of a long and intimate acquaintance and corre spondence with him. There have been greater legal minds in this country and on this bench; but Judge Folger was an extremely accomplished legal scholar, and a profound and equitable judge. In addition he was a grave and wise states man, an elegant scholar in literature, an af fectionate and faithful friend, a noble and unblemished man. There is little need to speak of his character, which was a synonym for dignity, integrity, candor, fearlessness, firmness, and devotion. It is much that a man goes through a long public life without incurring a single hostile imputation; it is more that when he is dead and gone, every survivor, foe as well as friend, will rise up and testify that he never deserved any. Even when he was made the victim of an overwhelming denunciation of political methods and party intriguers, no breath ever tarnished his fair fame. He unques tionably had a marked fitness for political life, and his political career was highly hon orable to himself and useful to the State; but he was most fit for a judge, and he was speedily conscious of the mistake he made in yielding to the pressing importunities of