Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 11.pdf/276

 The Late Mr. ynstice Field. to jurisprudence. He made the California reports known and cited throughout the country, and when Congress provided for an additional judge on the Supreme Court of the United States, the universal voice of the Pacific coast designated the chief justice of the Supreme Court of California to fill the place and President Lincoln appointed him. He was commissioned March loth, 1863, and took his seat at the next session of the court. The ensuing years, next to those at the foundation of the government, were the most important and far-reaching in its ju dicial annals. Marshall and his contem poraries had defined its powers and settled the foundations on which it stood. These foundations were shaken by civil strife and had almost to be relaid, the new amendments must be construed and applied and the de velopment and change of a new era met and provided for within the limits of the Constitution. It would be impossible in one article to follow Justice Field through the discussion and determination of the im portant questions that arose, nor for the pro fession is it necessary to do so. The ques tion of martial law in a loyal State, the test oath as a condition for the practice of a profession, pardon and amnesty, confisca tion, and kindred political subjects, all came before the court, and to them all Justice Field applied the fundamental maxims of Anglo-Saxon liberty and jurisprudence to which he always clung. In the legal-tender cases he stood with Chief Justice Chase for sound principles and sound money, he vigorously opposed the in come tax law and through all his opinions there run certain controlling ideas : The absolute freedom from interference by each from the other of the general and the State governments, and the vigorous maintenance of the powers of each within its just sphere; the perfect protection of the individual in all natural or contract rights from encroach ments, from any source. It is as Courts and legislatures have swerved from the

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recognition and application of these great principles, that the rights of property have been questioned, a dangerous centralization developed, and a false socialism encouraged which threatens the peace and prosperity of the years to come. The transfer of Justice Field's residence from the midst of a new and rapidly changing community to the staid and settled life of the Capital did not bring as might have been expected freedom from the exciting incidents of his earlier career. Twice his life was endangered by disappointed suitors; in one case by an in fernal machine sent through the mail from California and traced circumstantially to the part he had taken in the settlement of a land title, and again growing out of his fearless administration of justice when he so nar rowly escaped murder at the hands of Judge Terry, whom the United States marshal de tailed to protect the Justice, killed in the at tempt. Warned of the danger, and urged not to go to California at that time, he said simply that it was his duty and when urged to arm himself replied : " When it comes to such a pass in this country, that judges of the courts find it necessary to go armed, it will be time to close the courts them selves." There were other episodes in the life of Justice Field not within the scope of the ordinary judicial career. One of these was participation in the deliberations and de cision of the tribunal which determined succession to the presidency in 1877, and another the use of his name in a po litical convention in 1880 and 1884 as a candidate for the presidency, where his courageous and consistent course in having upheld the rights of the Chinese, and on other subjects, angered the Pacific coast politicians and defeated him. Referring to his possible candidacy in 1884, he made the following characteristic declaration in a letter to a friend : " My judicial opinions on subjects of interest in California — the position of the Chinese in