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copy in the original Greek, which even at church he never failed to consult. He deliv ered in various places, just before coming to the bench, lectures upon the English Bible, in order to correct misstatements current upon the subject. During the later portion of his life his linguistic acquirements would have been considered remarkable in a pro fessed student of languages.1 "•He let no day pass that he did not, with tenacity of purpose seldom equalled, labor to widen the boundaries of his knowledge, and to make all that he had learned so truly his own that he could call it into use at a mo ment's notice. "In order to be an accom plished lawyer," he has said, " it is neces sary, besides having a knowledge of the law, to be an accomplished man, graced with at least a general knowledge of history, of sci ence, of philosophy, of the useful arts, of the modes of business, and of everything that concerns the well-being and intercourse of men in society. He ought to be a man of large understanding; he must be a man of large acquirements and rich in general information." Such was his conception of the standard to be striven for in the profes sion he had chosen. Mr. Bradley was a Whig, and afterwards a Republican. In 1862 he ran for Congress, but he was defeated by the candidate of the Democratic party. His name headed, in 1868, the Grant and Colfax electoral ticket of New Jersey. At the outbreak of the Re bellion, although he had been conservative to the last degree for the sake of peacefully preserving the Union, Mr. Bradley came for ward, and in words of ringing eloquence ap pealed to the people to sustain President Lincoln, and uphold the flag. This timely public utterance was most helpful to the cause. To his active patriotism was it due 1 It is told of him that a lady once showed to him a ring, on which was an inscription, which she said she had applied to many learned men to translate, but she had found no one to decipher. He thereupon purchased books upon Arabic, and set himself to the study of that tongue. At a later day he had the satisfaction of telling her what the inscription meant.

that the New Jersey railroads at this crisis put their entire equipment at the free dis posal of the government. The reputation of such a man could not, of course, be confined to one State or neigh borhood. President Grant, on the 7th of February, 1870, sent to the Senate the name of Mr. Bradley, to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, a selection that met with very general ap proval. The nomination (as well as that of Judge William Strong, of Pennsylvania, which had been sent in at the same time) was confirmed, and Mr. Justice Bradley was assigned to the fifth, or Southern Circuit. Aside from the honors of the office, Mr. Justice Bradley had reason to welcome his elevation to the bench because of his health, which imperatively required a change of scene and of occupation.1 The Supreme Court opinions of Mr. Jus tice Bradley, reported in the sixty-seven volumes from the ninth of Wallace to the one hundred and forty-first United States, inclusive, extend over a formative period of our judicial history. These opinions deal with a variety of subjects, — with questions of constitutional law and of the construction . To the intimate friend of his student days, already re ferred to, he writes, April 3, 1870 : " As to my elevation to the bench, the words of Coleridge keep coming to my mind : — ' It sounds like stories from the land of spirits If any man obtain that which he merits, Or any merit that which he obtains.' And I ask myself does not that indeed apply to me? Am I not really one that hath obtained that which he doth not merit? I often feel so. I often think how many, many men there are who are far superior to me, and far better fitted for the place to which I have been called. And then I am driven again to look for aid from above. I have contemplated and tried to appropriate this morning the words of Solomon ( 1 Kings iii. 7-9) : ' O Lord my God, thou hast made thy servant ljudge]; and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in. And thy servant is in the midst of ... a great people, that can not be numbered nor counted for multitude. Give there fore thy servant an understanding heart to judge [this] people, that I may discern between good and bad; for who is able to judge this ... so great a people? I repeat this prayer very often, as bad a Christian "5 I am; and I hope it may be answered." . ..