The appointment of Benjamin R. Curtis, of Massachusetts, as an associate member ot the Court was made by President Fillmore at the solicitation of Daniel Webster, then Secretary of State. Mr. Justice Curtis was a member of the distinguished family of his name in Massachusetts, a graduate of Har vard and a scholar of the highest distinction. It was said of him that he was the consum mate master of forensic style among Ameri can lawyers and that his rhetoric both in form and manner was perfection of its kind, clear, calm, distinct and unimpassionate. The history of the Taney Bench would not be complete if the other members of the Su preme Court who served so ably with him were not included in its history. The great Story, who many claim was only second to Marshall as an expounder of the Constitu tion. Mr. Justice Smith Thompson, of whom Mr. Justice Nelson said, "He fulfilled all the obligations of his exalted position." Mr. Justice John McLean, of Ohio, whose mind was firm, frank and vigorous. Mr. Justice Baldwin, of Connecticut, who was appointed by President Jackson, because of his "su perior talents, extreme information and learning." Mr. Justice James M. Wayne, of
Georgia—he was a graduate of Princeton College and practised law with great ability in his native city, Savannah—"as a judge he was able, learned and conscientious." And last but not least by any means, was Mr. Jus tice John Archibald Campbell, of Georgia, who on account of his Southern sympathies, resigned in 1861. After the war he resumed practice of the law before this Court and his "arguments became of great renown." The Associate Justices included in the frontispiece were selected after carefully considering all who served with Taney during his long and useful career as those being most in sympathy with the Chief Justice in his life's work. The history of this Republic in its giant strides for enlightenment impresses one with the fact that the framers of the Constitution were farsighted beyond the vision of man kind generally in lodging with the Supreme Court a power of control and hedging its members about so that neither hope nor fear would influence their actions. Without this firm hand on the tiller, the ship of State must have ere this gone upon the rocks of discord with fatal results.
