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 A Century of Federal Judicature. all the elements of this high estimate of his powers. Webster said of him that "his great mental characteristic was clearness"—clear ness of thought and clearness of expression.

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said Richard Henry Dana, "I listened to it with something of that surprise and delight with which one who has labored through the slow and repetitious process of arithmetic

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Not only had he thoroughly mastered legal principles, but he possessed undoubted genius in their acute and comprehensive ap plication. "Whenever I have heard Judge Curtis state his proposition on a subject which I had myself made a matter of studv,"

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sees his work done before his face by the methods and signs of algebra." His rigorous logical method was enforced in a style of surpassing simplicity and power. "Vigorous, but not impassioned; massive, without ruggedness; devoid of ornament,