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Vol. VII. No. 3.

BOSTON.

March, 1895.

I.

By Edgar B. K1nkf.ad, of the Columbus Bar.1

THE subject of this article is " A Sketch of the Supreme Court of Ohio." To attempt to write more than a mere sketch for the purpose intended would be im practicable, and involve much time and research, as a history of the many facts, incidents, and anecdotes connected with the Supreme Court of Ohio and its com ponent parts — the judges — would fill a volume. An yet how interesting and in structive! It may be suggested that there is a vacuity in American legal literature which apparently is not within the power of any one to adequately fill, though there have been slight attempts at preserving interest ing and instructive reminiscences of lawyers of great ability. What a field it is! Many members of the legal profession there are who have come and gone, whose lives have been worthy of emulation and example, and filled with characteristics, incidents, and anecdotes, which, if preserved, would guide those who follow. Great lawyers appear in cases which reach the courts of last resort where their briefs are coldly digested for insertion in the report of the opinion of the court, thus forming the only record which may tell the story of their legal lives. How incomplete! But of those of the eminent lawyers who are called to a seat upon the bench of the Supreme Court a little more of 1 I am greatly indebted to Judge Joseph Cox, of Cin cinnati, as well as to my associate in business, Hon. N. R. Hysell, for material aid in the preparation of sketches of judges.

their character and ability becomes a matter of record. In no way can some of the most valued items in the history of the lives of such men be preserved than by bio graphical sketches of deceased judges and lawyers. Thus may the merits and virtues of those eminent in the profession be re corded for the emulation and guidance of those who are to follow them, even long after their names, like their bodies, shall have mouldered to the almost forgotten dead. Obituary addresses delivered by close friends of deceased members of the profession at Bar Association meetings occupy a good field. When we peer into the history of the great men who have sat upon the bench of the Supreme Court of the Buckeye State, we are unable to catch more than a passing glimpse. " The shades troop about us, and flit hither and thither in shadowy confusion." A man seems just to have reached the point where he is of the greatest use to his peo ple and his country, when he disappears, and another takes his place. So it has been, and so will it ever be. But let us to our task, which seems prosaic enough, though there is a fascination in a measure com pensating the labor involved. We have said " The Supreme Court of the Buckeye State," and indeed, what can be more appropriately connected or associated with the judiciary than the soubriquet " Buck eye," which has been 'applied for so many years to the State of Ohio, as its origin may 105