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VOL. IX.

No. 6.

BOSTON.

JUNE, 1897.

CHIEF-JUSTICE CHARLES DOE. BY SAMUEL C. EASTMAN. H ARLES DOE was born April u, 1830, and died suddenly, while on his way to attend a law term of the Su preme Court, on March 9, 1896. He was graduated at Dartmouth College in 1849. He studied law with Daniel M. Christie at Dover and at Harvard Law School, prac ticed law in Dover after his admission to the bar, was county solicitor for two or three years, was assistant clerk and clerk of the senate of New Hampshire, was appointed judge of the Supreme Judicial Court, Sep tember 23, 1859, was legislated out of office by a change of the court in 1874, and, after another legislative change of the court, was appointed chief justice of the Supreme Court, July 22, 1876, which latter office he held till his death. His first opinion ap pears in 39 N. H. 2II, Robinson v. Aiken, and consists of twelve lines; his second opinion is the next case, Pittsfield Bank z1. Clough, and is expressed in two lines. His last opinion is not yet published. It will be seen that, for over thirty-four years, he was a member of the court of final jurisdiction of the State of New Hampshire. There were no inferior courts in New Hamp shire during his term of service. The judges of the Supreme Judicial and of the Supreme Court held the trial terms in the different counties and sat together in the law terms for the corrections of errors. Prior to his appointment as chief justice, Judge Doe, in common with his associates, presided at the trial terms, which were allotted to him. Not long after his promotion, he was excused by his associates from holding trial terms, but

he sometimes took the place of one of them who was ill and generally, perhaps always, was one of the two judges required by the State law to be present in trials of persons accused of murder. He was a Democrat at his entrance on his career, but became a Republican not long before his appointment as judge. After that appointment, he ceased to intervene publicly in political affairs, but it was pretty well understood that he exerted a great influence, sometimes by editorial contributions to the press, the authorship of which was not made public, and more frequently by personal interviews with leading politicians and by liberal contributions to campaign funds. When any matter that concerned the court, either as to its personnel, when a vacancy was to be filled by the governor and coun cil, or when some proposed change was be fore the legislature, his influence was always felt, though not always seen. It is said that in college he was not a diligent student. If this is the fact, he cer tainly changed his habits when he applied himself to law. He was always indefatiga ble in his researches into the past history of any question, and was not always inclined to follow established precedents when he believed that they were not founded on sound and valid reasons. During his term of office, largely owing to his influence, many of the decisions in the earlier reports have been modified, limited and overruled. Some of his own dissenting opinions have been finally adapted as the law and have obtained general acceptance. »45