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The Green Bag

ment. I need not remind you that in neither of the great states, of Illinois, Indiana, Michi gan, Wisconsin, or Minnesota, is there any member of the Supreme Court. But, more than all that, he is a Democrat of the Jackson and Douglas school. He is now, and always has been, a firm and consistent believer in the fundamental doctrine of the Constitution of the United States, viz: That the union of the states, as well as the rights of the states in the union under the Constitution, are made perpetual and indestructible. The recent appointment of Mr. Lamar makes the selection of Mr. Fuller, for that reason, peculiarly fit and appropriate now; and all the more so, because Mr. Lamar, during the recent epochs of secession and civil war, was led away from this fundamental idea of the Constitution. I do not doubt the sincerity with which he accepts the result of the Civil War, and that as a Judge he will earnestly maintain the sacred doctrine, that Union and Liberty, hereafter, are to be forever one and inseparable.

It is not to be forgotten that the Civil War was the outgrowth of a conflict of ideas between the two schools of democracy, at the head of which stood two great men, both of whom were born in South Carolina, — I mean Andrew Jackson and John C. Calhoun. Both upon principle, and by the teachings of all our experience, all are now satisfied that the perpetutity of our Union, the happiness of our people, the greatness of our Republic among the other nations of the earth, forbid that a majority of the Supreme Court, and that the Chief Justice of that Court, should be chosen from among the disciples of the school of Calhoun, whether the appointment comes from the North or from the South; and least of all, should a Democratic Administration make an appoint ment of Chief Justice of any man who was opposed to the fundamental idea of the Con stitution in which the Republic lives, and moves, and has its very being. Very respectfully yours, J. R. DOOLITTLE.

The Legal Monthly Analyst* of Leading Legal Events The organization of the American Judicature Society, the outcome of the public-spirited interest of a modest citizen of Michigan in law reform, was perhaps the most gratifying develop ment of the month. The plans for the work upon which this agency entered on August 1 had long been under care ful consideration, much of the best expert advice procurable having been obtained by Mr. Harley from leaders of bench and bar long before he was willing to make any details public. The society starts with an able and in fluential directorate which promises well for the outcome of its efforts, at least in arousing professional opinion to a sense of the need of concerted and in telligent action. The numerous recent state bar associa tion meetings do not seem to have given

World

any great amount of attention to pro posed reforms of procedure, and the topic of procedural reform and obviation of the law's delays is not so often the subject for a bar association address as it was once. The various law reform committees continue to perform con scientious service, but secondary matters of chiefly local concern occupy most of their attention. The explanation must be either that there has been some improvement throughout the country in the general situation — which is not at all improbable, be progress ever so slight — or that the feeling has arisen that relief must now come from legis lative bodies, which have only to lend public sanction to projects formulated by the bar. Undoubtedly the problem is chiefly a legislative one at the present time, as the legislatures have entertained numerous bills backed by influential