684
THE GREEN BAG
"What is this thing which we call the law? Upon subjecting these rules to scru tiny, we at once perceive that they are affected with a moral character — that they are, or ought to be, just. The judge, in the performance of his function of declaring the law, seeks for that rule which is dictated by what is called justice. . . . The masters of human thought, after ages of endeavor, are able to carry us but a single step in ad vance; but the steps are, nevertheless, grad ually taken and we thus approach, by slow and almost imperceptible stages, towards that knowledge of abstract and absolute justice which human reason will never reach, but after which it forever aspires. We may in despair abandon the search into this hidden reality; but let us never forget that it is a reality, or become insensible to its transcendent importance. Some ability to understand and apply it is given to all; and we share the possession in proportion to the earnestness and fidelity with which we cultivate the higher faculties of our nature, and seek to hold converse with the spirit of justice. Poor, indeed, will be the law giver or the judge who does not at every step draw inspiration from this fountain, and acknowledge that he is not a maker, but a seeker, among divine sources, for preexisting truth." And, again, he says, speaking of "the law," that "It possesses as an essential feature a moral character; that it springs from and reposes upon that everlasting and infinite Justice which is one of the attributes of Divinity; and that it is so much of that attribute as each particular society of men is able to comprehend and willing to apply in human affairs." It was because he believed that the re duction of the law to rigid statutory form tended to make it a set of arbitrary rules not based upon justice, and not capable of being molded by judicial tribunals into con formity with their standards of justice, that he was opposed so intensely to codification of the principles of jurisprudence. He did not, of course, claim that the courts always attained to the true standards of justice; but admitted that the courts were fre quently misled by temporary misconcep
tions into departures from true justice. His view, however, was that the courts would tend to give expression to the highest form of justice which the public opinion of their generation should point out to them, and that the courts are better adapted to giving expression to the highest standard of justice of their generation than is the legis lative body. I have undertaken to speak of Mr. Carter as a lawyer and not as a citizen or a man. I cannot, however, refrain from adding a few words of tribute to his character in these regards. As a citizen, he brought to the consider ation of all public questions the same earn estness and intensity of conviction which characterized him as a lawyer without, how ever, any of the bias which, of necessity, more or less influenced his judgment in his professional capacity. In dealing with pub lic questions and with his duty as a citizen with regard to those questions, he •was sin gularly open-minded and free from preju dice. At a late period of his life, he threw off the ties which had bound him to the party of his early manhood because he be came convinced that the opposite party stood for economic principles which ap pealed to his judgment, his reason, and his conscience. He never, however, became a party man, but held himself at all times free to act as his sense of duty required in each successive political contest between the parties. In municipal matters he was one of the first to take the ground that party lines should not be allowed to interfere -with the selection of the best and ablest administra tors of city affairs. His voice and his influ ence were always ready in the cause of good government, and no one was more potent than he in influencing his fellowcitizens for right and against the wrong. Courageous, absolutely unselfish, and dis interested, he threw himself without reserve into the struggle whenever it appeared that he could accomplish results for the welfare
