Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 15.pdf/607

 556

'llie Green Bag.

success. Yel he had nof at that time the money requisite for purchasing a library an3 removing to a more advantageous point. Consequently, the day was not long in ar riving when the young barrister must find, temporarily, a more lucrative occupation. A clerkship in a transportation office was opportunely offered to him, a position which he accepted and held for three years, only gving it up when Governor Towns appoint ed him one of the secretaries of the executive department. The latter place he filled but one year; for his first, most ardent love was wooing him back to her with a call which he could never disregard. Therefore, in 1852, being then twenty-five years of age, he opened a law office in Atlanta, where, from the first, his success was no matter of doubt. In 1853, we find the mountain youth aspir• ing to a position of such importance that, in the early clays of his candidacy, his aspira tions were regarded by the State at large as audacious in the extreme. His own naive words relating to the matter, when he was recently asked by the Bar Association of Georgia to tell something o: those early days, will give you the measure of the situ ation better than mine could do. "The office to which I aspired," jaid he, "was that of Solicitor-General of the Cowcta circuit, which, as then constituted, embraced eight counties, and included the city of At lanta. The ofiice was believed and reputed to be the best-paying office in the State, and so was an object of desire by nine other gen tlemen as well as myself. Three of these were so badly beaten in the race that I have forgotten their names." This election was by the Legislature on joint ballot of the two houses, and it suffices to say that, after several ballots, young Blecklcy was chosen for the position, and that he served out his four years' term as Solicitor-General with such distinction tha' forever thereafter office and high dignity

have sought him. In 1864 he received the appointment of Reporter to the Supreme Court. This he accepted, but resigned three years later to resume his regular practice. It was in July of 1875, when Mr. Bleckley was forty-eight years of age, that he became, by executive appointment, an Associate Jus tice of the Supreme Court of Georgia. This honorable seat was not only unsought by the busy and devoted lawyer, but, when first tendered, was declined. Later, however, it was accepted and filled for five difficult, over worked years, after which he felt that he had won the privilege of resigning and giving himself to himself. But Judge Bleckley's great wisdom, as well as his ability to serve, were too much needed in the constitution of the State's judiciary for him to be permitted long to walk his peaceful private ways. Earnestly and urgently he was summoned back to ser vice in 1887, when rounding his sixtieth year. This time the Governor had appointed him Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Bench of Georgia was at this time probably the most over-crowded court in the United States, the hardest worke;! and worst paid. The situation has been greatly amended since, by the addition of two new justices to the hard-driven three, and also by a better equating of toil and remuner ation. But in the twelve years during which Judge Bleckley labored so faithfully upon this Bench, first as an Associate Justice, and later as Chief of the three, the work was such as would have worn to exhaustion the brain, body and nerve force of an ordinary man. Yet no ordinary man was this longlimbed, stout-sinewed, large-brained son of the mountains; therefore, he endured the strain heroically, until he was close upon his seventieth year, when he again resigned his seat, this time finally, as he had indeed earned the right to do. This ultimate resig nation came in 1894, and closed a term of