JACOB M. DICKINSON brethren of the Chicago Bar have planned to recognize and do honor to this service. And well may they do so, for he has conferred great distinction upon them as well as him self in London, the fountainhead of our great system of English jurisprudence. His acute legal mind, his ability as an advocate, his genial manners, and his ready wit capti vated his British associates; and his con scientious devotion to his cause and his exalted patriotism won for him the praise of all Americans. . It was fortunate for our country that it had such a worthy champion, and it should be reckoned among the first of Chicago's possessions that it numbers him among its citizens." Those who know Judge Dickinson well will not feel that these estimates of his character and professional qualities and of the nature of the service rendered to his country in this great case, are in any way exaggerated or over-drawn. Judge Dickinson in 1876, was married to Miss Martha Overton, of Nashville, a lineal descendant of John Overton, who was one of the early pioneers in Tennessee, a close personal friend of Andrew Jackson, succeed ing him as Judge of the Supreme Court of that state. In Jackson's biography may be found a long account of his early and romantic attachment for Rachel Robards and the misunderstanding that arose between him and her husband, his trip down the Mississippi with her and his subsequent marriage, which was written by Judge Overton. General Thomas Overton, a brother of Judge Overton, was General Jackson's second in his celebrated duel wth Charles Dickinson, in which the latter was fatally wounded. Judge Dickinson has three sons, two of whom have reached manhood, and the youngest is now about to enter upon his academic studies at Yale. Judge Dickinson has always been a Democrat in politics, although not in sym pathy with the free coinage notion and possibly some other ideas which he may have regarded as modern heresies. He attends
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the Fourth Presbyterian Church in the City of Chicago. Personally he is a man of commanding presence, rather above than below six feet in height, very fond of shooting, fishing and horseback riding and all out-door sports. He is an interesting and genial companion of wide reading and has a vast fund of informa tion as to the history of this country, and as to matters somewhat local and personal throughout the South, especially those portions of it in which he has lived. He has a fund of appropriate anecdote upon which he draws for apt illustration in legal argument and in conversation. As a lawyer he has attained the highest rank. When the Government of the United States sought by injunction to restrain the railroads in Chicago from granting rebates by bill in equity filed for that purpose, on which were presented many important and grave questions of law, the lawyers repre senting the railroads in that city selected Judge Dickinson to act for therein making such representations as were deemed proper to the court before whom the injunction was sought. Judge Dickinson is a man of earnestness and strong convictions. In forensic con troversy he is aggressive, persistent and forcible, but with a courtesy to court and counsel that never fails and with a high appreciation of his duty as an advocate, not merely to his clients but to the court and all concerned. He illustrates, as well as any lawyer whom I know, the high standard set by Sir Alexander Cockburn, Lord Chief Justice of England, in some remarks that he made at a banquet given by the Bar of England for M. Berryer on the 8th of Novem ber, 1864. Referring to this great French lawyer, the Lord Chief Justice said : "And allow me to say that of all those intellectual qualities and attainments which distinguish the eminent and illustrious man whom we have this day met to honor, there is in my mind one virtue and one quality
