Lincoln (Maine] Bar. But the oak has been used to have legal mat ters in memorial keeping. Joshua, the great He brew captain, during the Canaanitish wars, codified rules of government for his nomadic race; and when he had written up the book of the law of
- the Lord, he took a great stone and set it up un
der an oak. (Jos. xxiv. 26.) The stone and the oak were used as memorials of a legal crisis in the nation, viz : codification of ils laws. Gideon too, in a crucial stage of servi tude of the Hebrew race, in seeking divine relief, met God under an " oak of Ophra." These facts show the early eminence of the oak, in use for memorial service, in the dawn of civili zation. Hallowed memories were its secrets. The oak in history appears to hold no mean distinction as a memorial of beneficent events in society, worthy of perpetuity. Its robust durability is suggestive of fitness for memorial uses. It has therefore been built into human history as a rib of perpetuity of affec tionate and sacred reminiscences. Humanity has voiced the idea of immortality; and in the oak, in the idealism of nature, to our Saxon fathers, its symbol. The Druids of Britain hung their memories of the past, as well as hopes of the future, on the oak in the tree tops of sacred groves. three colonial Lincoln, h centuries, it local not crowned fit, civil —therefore, the with lifesuccessor ofhoary New thatof memories England the old Cornwall bar ofof near old the in
its jurisdictional service of the common law of England; should take the oak as its memorial keepsake and adopt the family of the Penobscot oak (a loan from the Sheepscot), and make it a living symbol of the service of the venerable chief justice of the bench and bar of Maine? Shall we not adopt its scion, or acorn, in perpe tuity of the respect and affection of Lincoln bar, for our honored chief justice of the judiciary of Maine, John A. Peters, of Bangor, whose "acorn terms" have so honored and adorned our bar? Shall we not hold these living symbols in perpe tuity of his services to society and civilization (and of partiality to our bar), of the green old age of our venerable chief, and in memorial of a useful life, in conserving the peace and good order of society, the stability of our civilization, the eminence of Maine, in a wise and just juris prudence and adornment of her bench with de cisions of law, of merit and sense? To Lincoln bar it will be a crown of honor that the honored chief of the judiciary of Maine has made it the sittings of the "acorn terms" of his court, and so given it a place in the niche of the legal history of New England; and the name of Peters a worthy place in the crowning emi nence of the grand old past of Lincoln county. Now, gentlemen, with an apology for the use of your time and patience — and of the thunder of the chief justice, to get the lightning for this occasion, — I take my leave of the motherhood of Lincoln bar.
