Mr. Justice Jackson.
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lightning perception of applicable principles, mean in man. This is not true; it is rather and under and in close and undivided con true that there is something essentially nection with these, a lightning-swift and mean in politics and the popular political lightning-clear perception and grasp of facts, standard. The meaner motives assigned in a quick and unerring analysis, as quick and this matter are not worthy of mention or accurate synthesis and classification; so refutation. To those who know the inside, that when the cause is closed the Judge is the President's knowledge, the movement of at once ready to present the jury with a good men of all parties for Judge Jackson's view of facts and applicable principles, with appointment, and the Judge's absolute dig out which facts are nothing, such as defies nified inaction, they were all known to be the criticism of the keenest lawyer. grotesquely false. His seven years upon the bench in that Judge Jackson himself, agreeably situated important circuit, whose large and varied upon the bench in a great circuit, pleasantly business brought before him, from time to dwelling upon and managing a truly baronial time, both the able lawyers of that circuit estate, knowing that he could never be so and many of the great lawyers of the East, agreeably employed in larger and higher demonstrated the superior judicial cast of his duties, feeling to the full the responsibilities mind. At the death of the lamented Justice involved, far from being eager, simply felt Lamar, President Harrison, whose sagacity that no lawyer and judge with a sense of and knowledge of judicial material had been duty and responsibility and a pardonable thoroughly demonstrated, wished to make pride in doing well his part in life, could the appointment from the South. His own decline. He accepted with a modest feeling acquaintance and intimacy with in the of responsibility, and without exhibiting the Senate, and knowledge of his complete fit elation of gratified personal vanity or of ness might have led him to appoint Jackson satisfied ambition. of his own motion. To reinforce this favor As a judge Justice Jackson is equally able knowledge came a strong appeal from skilled to grasp and unravel the most tangled staunch Republican lawyers of the North skein of legal principles and conflicting deci west, who knew from experience the su sions, and the most complicated web of perior fitness of Judge Jackson. To this human events, facts, and relations, or the were soon added appeals of the same kind most involved and complex combinations of from the East and from the South. It is mechanics and machinery. He is equally also believed, but is not here stated as a facile in his grasp of abstract principles of fact, that the judges of the Supreme Court law, — if it is ever the part of a judge to deal desired such an able associate. Repre in the abstract, or to deal with principles sentations made without regard to party, apart from their application, — and in the close-fit application of principles to facts and added to his own knowledge, enabled Presi dent Harrison to know that he could make relations; he moves with equal facility through a tangled line of conflicting deci no mistake in such appointment. It was every way creditable, both in the sions and a complex arithmetical web, fre motives thereto and in the judgment dis quently shocking an expectant clerk with an played in the selection. Being an unusual account briefly and clearly stated. It is rare display of party — rather unpartisan — mag that one with an easy grasp of facts is also nanimity, the appointment called for the equally gifted in the law, or that one with usual questioning of motives, search for the clear glance at facts and a marvellous memory meaner motive beneath a great act. This and knowledge of details has also the highest invariable search for the mean motive back reasoning powers and a logical bent equal to of a good act suggests something generally his grasp of details. Add to this an even
