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those who went down amid the ruins of the there have been few great cases with which Supreme court room. As he was going up Judge Robertson has not been connected to the fatal court-room, he met at the steps since he left the bench. I was present at of the Capitol a friend who told him of the the trial of the famous Arlington suit before death of one of their schoolmates and the Supreme Court at Washington, and heard friends. " Yes," he replied, " We are all Judge Robertson, who was leading counsel passing away." for General Custis Lee, speak. His brief in William J. Robertson was born in 1817 in this case has been pronounced " a master Culpeper County, Va. He graduated with piece of legal argument." While the case was still undecided I went, with the wife the degree of B. L., at the University of Vir ginia. He settled in Charlottesville, and of a distinguished Washington lawyer, to call at the home of Chief-Justice Waite. was soon after elected commonwealth's at torney for Albemarle County and won The Chief-Justice happened to be in the much reputation. In 1859 he was elected parlor, and the lawyer's wife, who was a friend of the Lee family, and also of Judge to the Court of Appeals over the distin guished orator and lawyer, Col. John B. Robertson, being naturally very much in Baldwin. I have been told that each thought, terested in the case, said to him : " Oh, for a day or two, the other was elected, and Judge Waite, please tell me what is to be each sent telegrams of congratulation to the the decision in the Arlington case." other, and they remained friends through Laughingly the Chief-Justice shook his life. Judge Robertson's first wife was a head, and replied : " My dear madame, I am daughter of the noted lawyer, Gen. Wil surprised at you. However," he continued, liam F. Gordon, of Albemarle County. " I remember you are only a lawyer by mar General Gordon was not only a great lawyer, riage, while Miss Marshall here is one by but an eloquent and charming public man, descent, so I venture to say she would not who, Randolph Tucker said, " deserves to have thought of asking me such a question." be remembered forever." He was the pro A lawyer, speaking to me of Judge Rob poser of the sub-treasury and a member of ertson, said : " In my opinion, his reputation the great convention of 1829-30. as a lawyer is not only due to his great ability but to his painstaking and conscien The ablest opinion which Judge Robert son delivered while on the Virginia Supreme tious preparation of his cases, and to his Bench, according to the opinion of the bench extreme thoroughness in all the details of and bar, was in the case of Burroughs vs. his profession, and above all in his great Peyton. It decided that the Confederate integrity." Judge Robertson's son, Judge Congress had no power to make a contract William Gordon Robertson, is a prominent with the citizens of the various States in the Virginia attorney with offices at Roanoke, Southern Confederacy whereby that body Va., and his son-in-law, Capt. Hugh Garden, should be forbidden to call such citizens into is a popular member of the southern colony the military service of the country, and that in New York, and of the bar in that city. Judge Robertson still lives at Charlottes an act of the Confederate Congress author izing persons in the military service of the ville. Confederacy to put in substitutes did not William Wirt Henry was born at Red constitute a contract between the govern Hill, Charlotte County, Va., February 14, ment and such persons, and that such per 183 1. He is the grandson of the celebrated sons could be compelled to serve again in orator, Patrick Henry. After taking his de the army under a call made by virtue of a gree in 1850 at the University of Virginia, subsequent law of Congress. In Virginia he rested a year and visited Washington to