Reminiscences of David Dudley Field. was successful in the Court of Appeals. While morally acquiescing in the general conviction and guilt of his client, he was contentious that only technical law should direct sentence. When congratulated on the result in my hearing — the while a united press was vituperating Mr. F*ield for his success — he simply quoted, " Sed justitia fiat" And he immediately drew a section for the criminal code of procedure which prohibited, " on all fours," with the decision any cumulative punishment of a convict in the future under similar circumstances. I have frequently met David Dudley Field in private and social life — at banquets, private dinners, receptions and conversa ziones. I was ever impressed with his courtier-like bearing, chivalry and courtesy — shown even to some sic volo sic jubco guest or some imitator of Shakespeare's character, " whom the music of his own vain tongue did ravish like entrancing harmony." I especially recall a rhetorical gallery — so to speak — that he erected in a banquet hall while replying to a toast — a gallery of patriots. In this he hung fqr France La fayette, for old Rome Brutus, for Greece Pericles, for Great Britain the elder Pitt, for Ireland Robert Emmett, for the United States Washington and Lincoln, for Italy Garibaldi and for Hungary Kossuth. Mr.
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Field could not be called an orator in its widest sense: he was rather a persuader; but on this occasion I recall that he was really eloquent; and his voice, seldom melli fluous, took on a tender undertone when referring to Lincoln, whom he almost idolized and whose promotion of his beloved brother Stephen he ever held in gratitude. I have met with Mr. Field's tender side. I have heard him sigh and shed a tear when I happened to speak in praise of his son and namesake who had recently died. I have seen him tenderly lifting from a carriage one of those grandchildren in whose memory he erected a tower with chimes in Stockbridge — chimes that appropriately pealed when his remains were being transferred to the cemetery of that historic town under April sunshine. I have heard Mr. Field quote the poets. On one occasion when I quoted a verse of Longfellow's Psalm of Life he added the ensuing verse. On another occasion I heard him quote Longfellow's Swedenborgian lines beginning " Call it not death." Still keeping this poet in mind let us believe that the deceased jurist has left "foot-prints on the sands of time "; and in " fields Elysian " has taken place with the first great codifying law giver who ascended Mount Sinai.
