172 to be exceedingly inaccurate and misleading. He is represented as an unsuccessful practi tioner; unsuited for the contests at the bar by reason of his excitable temperament; de ficient in classical education, and given to the use of a book of legal maxims with a view to adorn his opinions by an at tempted display of learning. The demands of truth, and justice to the memory of the dead, require the statement that careful in quiry has developed the fact that the defi ciencies and weaknesses either did not exist or are extravagantly overdrawn. It has hitherto been unwritten history that before appointing him Circuit Attorney, Judges McGirk and Tompkins, who knew his worth and ability, felt restrained by the fear that the appointment might lead to a place on the circuit bench, the salary of which was at that time only $1,000, — a small sum compared with what they believed Mr. Scott could earn at the bar. It came to pass, however, that Judge Scott ascended the bench and re mained upon it, Circuit or Supreme, most of the time until shortly before his death. Those who conversed with him from time to time bear witness that he was an accom plished scholar. The library he left at his death was rich in well-selected books, Eng lish, Latin, and Greek. He had some knowl edge of Hebrew, and understood both French and Spanish. Through life he remained a great student, and the well-conned leaves of his books bear testimony that he read much and understandingly. His -services as Cir cuit Judge attracted so much attention that he was promptly chosen to fill the vacancy in the Supreme Court caused by Judge Mc Girk's resignation in 1841 . He was ousted by the Amendment of 1848, but the election held under the Amendment of 1851 recalled him to the bench. With Judges Scott, Gamble, Ryland, Leonard, Napton, Richard son, and Ewing upon its bench, the Mis souri Supreme Court lived its golden age. Judge Scott's opinions are numerous, and cover almost every branch of the law. They are found in volumes seven to twelve, and
fifteen to thirty-one of the Missouri Reports. Some of them decide important questions of real-estate law, and others discuss grave ques tions of constitutional construction. It is evidence of the high esteem in which his views are held that when in recent years questions previously decided by opinions from which Judge Scott had dissented, have come before the court a second time, there has been a strong inclination to adopt, and in some notible instances an actual adoption of, his dissenting views. It fell to Judge Scott to write the majority opinion in the afterward nationally important Dred Scott case (15 Mo. 582). Recent writers, who display a pardonable and justifiable affection for him an account of whose life was their subject,1 but who display quite too much par tiality, even partisanship, to deserve to be called historians, have taken occasion to re flect most seriously and unwarrantably upon Judge Scott's judicial independence and in tegrity (12 Cent. Mag., 208, 211,. June, 1887). This is neither the time nor the place to consider the correctness of that de cision; and all are agreed in gratification that the institution and circumstances which gave rise to the case are things of the past. Most of us have no impressions which are calculated to warp the mind to a view of the question so partial as not to see great force in Judge Scott's ruling, — that each State has the right to determine her own local public policy, and is not bound by any rule of comity to recog nize the local policy of a sister State which is in conflict with her own laws and policy, or prejudicial to the interests of her citizens, declared and protected thereby. It is not out of place, however, to note that in the Supreme Court of the United States so ac complished a jurist as Mr. Justice Nelson, after showing that Judge Scott's ruling had the great support of the opinions of Lord Stowell, Story, Kent, Shaw, and of many courts in similar cases, declared that " it must be admitted that the current of author1 Abraham Lincoln : A History, by Nicolay and Hay, "Century Magazine."
