HOW TO GET STRONG
was a military man, and very popular. Young Gibson was a poor country boy. He entered Jefferson College when about seventeen. Studied law at Carlisle, and was admitted at twenty-three. Soon became President-Judge of the Eleventh Judicial District. In 1816 he became an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania; and in 1827 Chief Justice, which position he held for twenty-six years. He sat upon the bench with twenty-six different associates; and at the time of his death had been longer a judge than any contemporary in the world.
"His opinions are found in no fewer than seventy volumes—from 2 Sergeant and Rawle to 7 Harris. He settled the law of riots in Pennsylvania, in Donahue vs. The County, 2 Barr., 230. His great decision is that of Ingersoll vs. Sergeant, 1 Wharton, 336, on the statute 'Quia Emptores,' and rent-charge and rent-service.
"He was upwards of six feet high, strong, muscular, and attractive. A born musician, his favorite recreation through life was the violin. He was a connoisseur in painting and sculpture, a master of English, French, Italian, and classic literature; had a sound knowledge of medicine, which he had carefully studied in youth; an adept at mechanics, a successful dentist, and tuned a piano perfectly. His language was saturated with Shakespeare, epigrammatic, paradoxical, and could never after be paraphrased. Said United States Attorney-General Jeremiah S. Black: 'In some points of character he had not his equal on earth. Such vigor, clearness, and precision of thought were never united with the same felicity of diction.' And adds Matthew H. Carpenter: 'His opinions, thoroughly understood, would make any man a profound lawyer.'"—Clark's Sketches of Eminent Lawyers.
"In person the Chief Justice is above the common stature; and has always been distinguished by extraordinary vigor of health and frame. His tempers are eminently social; and among all classes of society throughout the State he is ever greeted as a welcome guest. His hearty health; his fresh and genial taste; and his devotion to judicial labors indicate a man on whose vigorous power age has made no mark."—United States Monthly Law Magazine.
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