him judge of the United States District Court for Kentucky. This position was in entire accord with his tastes, and he discharged its duties most acceptably until May 9, 1826, when Presi dent John Quincy Adams appointed him associate justice of the United States Su preme Court. This office he filled with great satisfaction to his associates and to the country at large until his death, which occurred all too soon on August 25, 1828. After his death a county in Kentucky was named in his honor. The writer of Justice Trimble's biography, as contained in volume i of the Digest of the United States Supreme Court Reports issued by the Lawyers' Co-operative Pub lishing Company, has very justly said of him : " Perhaps no associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, occu pying the position for so short a time, placed the result of his labors in so conspicuous a form as Robert Trimble. A greater pro portion of the opinions written by Justice Trimble have formed the foundation upon which either to originate or support later rulings of the court, than those prepared by any other justice." It was Justice Trimble who, in Montgom ery v. Hernandez, 12 Wheaton, 129, first defined with precision " the federal ques tion " that must be raised by a litigant who seeks a writ of error from the Supreme Court to a state court, and showed that the plaintiff in error must have claimed the right in the state court. This is the basis of a long line of cases continually recurring in the reports. Collins's History of Kentucky says of him : "As a judge of the highest state court he had no superior in diligence, learn ing, ability and uprightness, and on being transferred to the supreme tribunal of the nation, both Chief Justice Marshall and Judge Story pronounced him not only a lawyer of the first order but also one of the most improvable men they had ever known.
. . . . But his private virtues and his sim ple noble nature shed a lustre upon his name above all that which was derived from great intellect, ripe attainments and high station." GEORGE M. BIBB.
The resignation of Ninian Edwards as chief justice in May, 1809, made room for the promotion of George M. Bibb to that position. Judge Bibb had been appointed, on Janu ary 31, 1808, associate justice of the court. On May 30, 1809, he was made chief jus tice, and he held that place until March, 1810, when he resigned, and John Boyle was appointed to succeed him. Upon the resignation of Chief Justice Boyle, Judge Bibb, on Januar)' 5, 1827, was for the second time commissioned chief justice of the court, holding the position this time until Decem ber 23, 1828, when he again resigned. With the advent of Judge Bibb into the Kentucky Court of Appeals, the fame of that court began. The bench and the bar of the State alike for many years bore the stamp and impress of his greatness. When at the bar he contended with foemen worthy of his steel, and few were the opponents whom he could not by his dex terous thrusts unhorse. When on the bench his opinions were models of concise and co gent reasoning, impartial justice and pro found knowledge of the law. His briefs and his decisions show him to have been a man of wide research in all fields of knowledge. Especially did he seem familiar with the reports of adjudged cases, both in this country and in England. In this connection it may be of interest to note that in the early history of the State an act was passed in obedience to popular prejudice against England, which prohibited any one "from reading or citing in any case all the reports of England since July 4, 17/6." It has been well said that such an offense would hurt the courts infinitely more than it would help the British.
