Wayne MacVea^h 
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF A MEETING 
 OF THE PHILADELPHIA BAR 
 
Wayne MacVea^li 
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF A MEETINX. 
 (IF TUE PHILADELPHIA BAK 
 

 'Sim Whi-; 
 
 Allen, Lane &, Scot 
 
 PHrLADELPHIA. 
 
Proceedings of a Meeting of the Phila- 
 delphia Bar, in Memory of the 
 Honorable Wayne MacVeagh. 
 
 A meeting of the Philadelphia Bar in memory 
 of the Honorable Wayne MacVeagh was held in 
 the Supreme Court Room on Monday afternoon, 
 January 22cl, 1917. 
 
 Chief Justice J. Hay Brown was elected Chair- 
 man. 
 
 Francis Rawle, Francis I. Gowen, T. De. Witt 
 Cuyler and John Hampton Barnes, Esqs., were 
 appointed Secretaries. 
 
 Chief Justice Brown, on taking the Chair: 
 
 Less than a fortnight ago, gentlemen of the Bar 
 of Philadelphia, one of your number died full of 
 years and full of honors, and it is quite fitting 
 that you meet here to give expression to the esteem 
 and respect in which 3^ou held him. The active 
 practitioner of the law is by his research, learning 
 and fidelity to duty the constant helpmeet of the 
 Court, but however useful and distinguished he 
 may be in his profession he is not long remem- 
 
2 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 bered after he is gone. The members of every Bar 
 bear witness to this as they recall departed asso- 
 ciates, once their pride and the pride of the com- 
 munity in which they lived. As our brotherhood 
 is broken from time to time by death, our good 
 custom is to meet, as we have now met, and pay 
 proper tribute to the memory of a brother who 
 adorned the profession and was faithful to the end 
 in the performance of duty. Mr. MacVeagh was 
 pre-eminently such a man. Though a member of 
 the Philadelphia Bar, with Philadelphia as the 
 scene of most of his professional activities, the 
 sphere of his usefulness was nation-wide. He was 
 not only a great lawyer through a long professional 
 career, during which he held the highest office as 
 a practitioner when appointed Attorney-General of 
 the United States, but was equally distinguished in 
 the diplomatic service of the country. His scholar- 
 ship was of the ripest and the range of his infor- 
 mation was limitless. Of his virtues and excellent 
 quaUties of head and heart it is for others now to 
 speak. His last cause has been heard; the knightly 
 contests at the bar will know him no more forever; 
 his displays of wit and eloquence, of mental acumen 
 and forensic learning are now but cherished mem- 
 
THE HONORABLE WAYNE Mac\TEAGH. 3 
 
 cries, which those who remain will not willingly 
 let die. I may be pardoned for referring to one 
 of the many services which he rendered to the 
 pubUc and of which I often think. Thirty-eight 
 years ago there was a vacancy in the District Court 
 of the United States for this district occasioned by 
 the death of that most learned, upright and cou- 
 rageous judge, John Cadwalader. His successor was 
 named by President Hayes at the instance of Mr. 
 MacVeagh alone, in the face of a strong move- 
 ment to have a member of the Philadelphia Bar 
 appointed. The appointee of the President was 
 WilUam Butler, who for more than a generation 
 faithfully and impartially judged the people, the 
 last twenty years of his judicial service having 
 been rendered in the United States Court where 
 he was matchless as a nisi prius judge. For this 
 pubUc service rendered by Mr. MacVeagh he 
 ought not to be forgotten so long as Judge Butler 
 is remembered. 
 
 John Cadwalader, Esq., read the following let- 
 ters from the Chief Justice of the United States, 
 Hon. Charles E. Hughes, a former Justice of the 
 Supreme Court of the United States, and others: 
 
4 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 Washington, D. C, January 20, 1917. 
 
 My Dear Mr. Rawle : — Now not quite forty years 
 ago the privilege came to me of meeting Mr. Mac 
 Veagh for the first time and of soon thereafter being 
 afforded an opportunity of modestly although inti- 
 mately knowing how great a part he took in bring- 
 ing peace and tranquihty to the distracted people of 
 Louisiana and causing them to feel that the throes 
 of civil strife had really ceased and that they were 
 once more participants in the civil liberty guaran- 
 teed by the Constitution which the fathers gave. 
 
 While the realization of this great public good 
 brought to me an abiding sense of gratitude towards 
 Mr. MacVeagh for the wise and efficient manner 
 in which he co-operated to bring the result about, 
 there was at the same time produced upon me a 
 lasting appreciation of his attainments and char- 
 acter; of the alertness and depth of his insight; 
 of the scope of his knowledge; of the broadness 
 of his vision in matters of government; and of his 
 devotion to civil liberty. In the many years 
 which have gone since the events to which I refer and 
 Mr. MacVeagh's participation in them, the results 
 of a personal friendship enjoyed have served only to 
 strengthen and add to the ties previously existing. 
 
THE HONORABLE WAYNE MacVEAGH. 5 
 
 With these things in mind, on learning that my 
 brethren of the Philadelphia Bar would hold on 
 Monday a meeting to express their appreciation of 
 the Ufe and character of Mr. MacVeagh, I have 
 ventured to think that they would not consider 
 me intrusive if I sought to become one of them in 
 the fulfillment of this purpose, and thus in spirit 
 at least to mingle my voice with theirs. May I 
 ask you, therefore, if you attend the meeting, as of 
 course I assume you will, that you use this letter as 
 a means of accomplishing that desire on my part. 
 Beheve me. 
 
 Always faithfully yours, 
 
 EDWARD D. WHITE. 
 Francis Rawle, Esq., Philadelphia. 
 
 New York, January 21, 1917. 
 
 My Dear Mr. Rawle: — I deeply regret that I 
 shall not be able to attend the meeting to be held 
 tomorrow to honor the memory of Wayne Mac 
 Veagh. Will you permit me, so far as I may, to 
 join in this tribute. 
 
 It is not necessary for me to speak of Mr. Mac 
 Veagh's fine abilities which gave him an early 
 
b IN MEMORY OF 
 
 distinction and enabled him in his long career to 
 discharge many liigh responsibilities. Nor can I 
 attempt, within the limits of this brief message, 
 to review the notable range of his activities in the 
 performance of public trusts. Rather, I should wish 
 to emphasize the sterUng worth of his character, 
 his strong will, and his rugged independence, which 
 combined with his ability and unfailing industry 
 made him a public servant of extraordinary fidelity 
 and efficiency and, whether in public or private life, 
 a tower of strength for good causes. 
 
 I esteemed it a great privilege to enjoy his friend- 
 ship in the late period of his retirement. Despite 
 his advanced years, he never lost his keen insight, 
 his capacity for close analysis and lucid statement, 
 or his intense interest in public affairs. 
 
 Not only his native state, but our country, 
 is under lasting obhgation for his distinguished 
 services — exhibiting a rare combination of talent, 
 virtue and strength devoted to the highest interests 
 of the Republic. 
 
 I beg to remain, 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 CHARLES E. HUGHES. 
 Francis Rawle, Esq. 
 
THE HONORABLE WAYNE MACVEAGH. 7 
 
 New York, 20 Jan'y, 1917. 
 
 My Dear Mr. Rawle: — I am very sorry that 
 I cannot accept j^our kind invitation to come 
 to Philadelphia on Monday afternoon and join 
 with the Bar of your citj' in paying the last tribute 
 to Wayne MacVeagh. 
 
 I had known him through the whole of his long 
 professional and pubUc career for we were almost 
 exact contemporaries, as he graduated at Yale in 
 1853, and I preceded him at Harvard only a year 
 earUer. He rose to the front very rapidly, and 
 maintained his lead until he was appointed by 
 President Garfield as Attorney General of the United 
 States, whereby he became the recognized official 
 head of the Bar of the whole nation. With adequate 
 legal learning he united a sparkUng wit, a keen 
 power of analysis and a truly aggressive eloquence 
 which made him a very formidable advocate. 
 
 Ahke in social life, at the Bar and on the pubhc 
 platform, he had a wonderful gift and habit of 
 repartee, which sometimes ruffled the spirits of 
 those against whom his shafts were directed, but 
 seldom, I beUeve, left any permanent sting. His 
 contemporaries at the Bar have mostly passed 
 away. But the whole profession gladly unites in 
 
8 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 doing honor to his memory. He appears to have 
 started out in life with a double purpose, to achieve 
 that high place in the profession to which his 
 great talents and his soaring ambition entitled him, 
 and at the same time to serve the pubhc as every 
 lawyer should, and the high places which he filled 
 as Attorney General, as Minister to Turkey and 
 Ambassador to Italy, were the just rewards of his 
 never-faiUng public spirit. 
 
 Independence of party dictation was his constant 
 watchword — and it would be well, I think, for the 
 countrj^, if more of our public servants were as 
 independent as he was. 
 
 I hope that the meeting of his brethren in his 
 honor will be an enthusiastic one, and bear em- 
 phatic testimony to the purity of his character and 
 the uprightness of his conduct throughout his 
 long and very useful life. 
 
 Ever truly yours, 
 
 JOSEPH H. CHOATE. 
 Hon. Francis Rawle. 
 
 New York, 19 January, 1917. 
 My Dear Mr. Rawle: — I greatly regret that I 
 cannot be present on Monday at the meeting of 
 
THE HONORABLE WAYNE MACVEAGH. 9 
 
 the Pliiladelphia Bar in memory of the late Wayne 
 MaeVeagh with whom I was associated during the 
 three j^ears ending in March, 1889. 
 
 During mj^ intimate connection with Mr. Mac 
 Veagh I formed for him an affectionate regard 
 which continued undiminished throughout his hfe. 
 I feel that I have lost a dear friend whose pecuUar 
 place cannot be filled. 
 
 I emphasize this personal relation because there is 
 no need for a tribute from me to his abUity and 
 character as a lawyer and a citizen. These are 
 known to the pubUc and to the Bar throughout the 
 country and certainly in Philadelphia. 
 
 His wit, his acumen and his high literarj^ quaUtj^ 
 distinguished him in every circle which he entered 
 and his loss will be felt and mourned by many who 
 regarded him as the keenest and most deUghtful of 
 Americans in social intercourse. 
 
 I may be permitted to give a single illustration of 
 his poetic quahty. Answering my question as to 
 which of the seasons he preferred, the spring or the 
 autumn, without a moment's hesitation, he repUed, 
 "Oh, the spring certainly. You he down to rest at 
 night with a bundle of dry twigs beneath your win- 
 dow, and when you awake you find that the miracle 
 
10 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 has been performed, and the bush is aflame with 
 roses." 
 
 I always shall miss him, and I never shall forget 
 him, and I am pleased that the Philadelphia Bar is 
 to record his name upon the long mortuary roll of 
 its members, distinguished for ability and for high 
 character. 
 
 I have the honor to be, 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 FRANCIS LYNDE STETSON. 
 Francis Rawle, Esq. 
 
 Philadelphia, Jan. 20, 1917. 
 
 Dear Mr. Rawle: — Much to my regret an im- 
 portant professional engagement in another city pre- 
 vents me from attending the Bar Meeting to take 
 action on the death of Hon. Wayne MacVeagh. 
 
 In my association with him in a number of cases 
 sometimes as his junior colleague and sometimes as 
 antagonist I had reason to reaUze his wonderful 
 quickness of mental grasp and his intellectual 
 agility which enabled him with but little prepara- 
 tion to seize the points of a controversy and to 
 make a brilhant and plausible argument. His 
 keen wit, his powers of sarcasm and his readiness 
 
THE HONORABLE WAYNE MACVEAGH. 11 
 
 in debate gave him the ability which so few men 
 possess of adapting his argument to the changing 
 exigencies of a case and of reforming his lines and 
 making new attacks as the contest proceeded. 
 
 Both in pubUc matters and in legal practice he 
 always dehghted to be in the front Une of battle 
 using his wit as an accomphshed swordsman would 
 use his rapier and always attractive to watch and 
 dangerous to encounter. 
 
 His death removes one who whether at the Bar 
 or in pubUc or private life was always a conspicuous 
 figure, and who will long be remembered by those 
 who had the pleasure of knowing him either in 
 person or by reputation. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 FRANK P. PRICHARD. 
 Francis Rawle, Esq. 
 
 Philadelphia, January 19, 1917. 
 My Dear Mr. Cadwalader: — I find that it 
 will be impossible for me to cancel my engage- 
 ment for Monday afternoon, and I must deny 
 myseK the privilege of compliance with your msh 
 that I should speak at the Bar meeting. 
 
12 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 I have known Mr. MacVeagh for nearly forty 
 years; at one time quite intimately, acting as his 
 junior in both criminal and civil cases, and accom- 
 panying him upon election campaigns, in which 
 he shone with unusual brilliancy. We also main- 
 tained a somewhat irregular correspondence, which 
 closed but a few months ago. 
 
 I have always regretted that with his forensic 
 abilities he had not devoted himself more exclu- 
 sively to the law, and identified himself more 
 closely with our Bar. Had he done so, he would 
 have been one of our best remembered members, 
 for his capacities were of the highest order, and his 
 eloquence of the rarest kind. In the power of clear 
 statement of facts he was unrivalled, and his sin- 
 gularly vibrant and musical voice gave great effect 
 to his utterances. He was a perfect master of the 
 art of elocution without being artificial, and whether 
 he was speaking in purely conversational tones, or 
 bursting into impassioned invective when fully 
 aroused, he recalled the description given of Pink- 
 ney in his prime, but with none of Pinkney's over- 
 loaded rhetoric. In fact his choice of words was 
 of the simplest but the strongest, and each sen- 
 tence, as he uttered it, caused a tingling sensation 
 
THE HONORABLE WAYNE MACVEAGH. 13 
 
 in the hearer. Another man might have used the 
 same words without producing one-half of the 
 effect. He never thundered or rumbled, but he 
 dazzled and electrified. I can well understand 
 what the Hon. George M. Dallas meant when he 
 once said to the late Samuel Dickson that "Mac 
 Veagh suggested to him what Cicero must have 
 been in the Roman Forum." Without losing self- 
 control, or exhausting himself by too violent action, 
 he quivered both in body and mind in the trial of 
 a case. He darted at his adversaries, whirUng the 
 authorities on his own side like the loops of a legal 
 lariat, or, circUng about, cut away the support of 
 his opponents by the sharp blade of ironical analysis. 
 While not a bookish legal student, he never missed 
 a point, or misunderstood the force of a proposition, 
 but was ready to meet it with an array of cases. If 
 this failed him, his dexterity was remarkable. If 
 borne down by a ponderous antagonist, he wielded the 
 scimiter of Saladin against the battle axe of Richard. 
 For fifteen years at least, he was one of the 
 knightUest figures in the court room. Perhaps it 
 would be better understood if I called him "the 
 Light Horse Harry Lee" of the court room. But 
 those days are gone — the days of Dougherty, of 
 
14 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 White, of Cuyler, of Cassidy, of Sheppard and of 
 the Brewsters, when trials lasted for weeks, and 
 dramatic action was not only in order but expected. 
 Business has gained, and so has the sober adminis- 
 tration of justice, but the courts are dull places 
 now that the forensic actors have departed. 
 
 Mr. MacVeagh was a leading and successful 
 advocate in the shifting scenes of his practice in 
 Chester County, in Dauphin County, in Phila- 
 delphia, in New York and in Washington, but as 
 he was migratory in habit, his fame, instead of 
 being concentrated, has become dispersed. His 
 long retirement from professional activity, due to 
 public service abroad and to venerable age, softens 
 our sense of loss, but cannot dim our recollection of 
 his forensic triumphs. Peace be to his ashes. 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 HAMPTON L. CARSON. 
 John Cadwalader, Esq. 
 
 C. Stuart Patterson, Esq., moved the adoption of 
 
 the following 
 
 Minute. 
 
 The members of the Bar of Philadelphia, present 
 at this meeting, record by this Minute their sorrow 
 
THE HONORABLE WAYNE MACVEAGH. 15 
 
 for the death of their late colleague, the Hon. 
 Wayne MacVeagh, and their appreciation of his 
 distinguished services. 
 
 The activities of Mr. MacVeagh 's brilUant career 
 were manifold. He was the District Attorney and 
 a leader of the Bar of Chester County; he was 
 an active practitioner at this Bar; he was the 
 Attorney-General of the United States in the 
 cabinet of President Garfield, and in his later days 
 in Washington he was constantly consulted in 
 causes of national and international importance. 
 As an adviser, he was sagacious and fertile in ex- 
 pedients, and as an advocate, he was forcible and 
 convincing. One of his most important public 
 services was as a member of the convention which 
 framed the present Constitution of Pennsylvania, 
 and as a participant in the deliberations and dis- 
 cussions of that body. 
 
 Mr. MacVeagh's knowledge of history, his 
 accurate understanding of poUtical methods and 
 his power of expression made him a singularly 
 effective public speaker, and his appearances at and 
 participation in meetings, partisan and non-partisan, 
 were in constant demand. 
 
 In politics he was always independent, and he 
 never permitted any man, or any body of men, to 
 
16 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 dictate to him individually any course of action 
 which his own judgment did not approve. 
 
 Mr. MacVeagh was sent by President Grant as 
 Minister Plenipotentiary to Turkey, and he was 
 appointed by President Cleveland as Ambassador 
 to the Court of Italy, but the pomp and pride of 
 diplomatic office and the enjoyments of foreign 
 life were not to him adequate compensation for 
 enforced absence from home and friends, and for 
 the necessary restraint upon his freedom of action 
 and expression. 
 
 Mr. MacVeagh was a remarkable personahty. 
 His varied reading, his wide acquaintance with the 
 leading men of this and other countries, his acute 
 mind, his keen observation, and his wit, made him 
 an exceptionally interesting companion. 
 
 Mr. MacVeagh's place in the hst of distinguished 
 members of the Bar of Philadelphia will long con- 
 tinued to be unique. 
 
 Mr. Patterson then said: 
 
 Mr. Chief Justice: — That which was so ad- 
 mirably said by you, and wliich was so forcibly 
 put in the letters which have been read, and that 
 which will undoubtedly be said by the gentlemen 
 
THE HONORABLE WAYNE MACVEAGH. 17 
 
 who are to follow me, make it unnecessary for me 
 to say many words. But a friendship of more than 
 fifty years in duration seems to require of me that 
 I should say a few personal words. 
 
 I first saw Mr. MacVeagh on the evening of the 
 State election of 1864. You remember that our 
 State elections at that time were held in October 
 and the National elections in November. On the 
 evening of that State election I was standing amid 
 the crowd in front of the house of the Union League, 
 which was then on Chestnut Street, and a window 
 was thrown open and a young gentleman appeared 
 at the window, and in a singularly clear voice 
 began to read the election returns. I said to the 
 man who was standing near me, "Who is it?" He 
 said, "That is Wayne MacVeagh, the Chairman of 
 the State Committee," and that was my first 
 glimpse of him. Circumstances very soon brought 
 us closely together, and from that time onward 
 I had the privilege of seeing much of him when- 
 ever he was on this side of the water, and the 
 things that impressed me chiefly were not merely 
 his wit, remarkable as we all knew that that was, 
 but his absolute decision of character and the 
 perfect courage with which he faced all decisions 
 
18 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 to which he felt that he had to come. In that 
 respect he was the equal of any man I ever 
 knew. 
 
 I cannot better conclude these few words than 
 by reading to you from the records of the Consti- 
 tutional Convention words which I heard from his 
 Ups when I was sitting as a spectator in the gallery 
 of that convention. In speaking of Mr. Hopkins, 
 a member who had recently died, he said: 
 
 "Such a man is not easily to be replaced; our 
 hearts are bowed, not only with sincere sympathy 
 for the afflicted and sorrowing family of our brother 
 who has gone before us, but with hearty regret 
 that the state has lost his services and the advan- 
 tages which his ripe wisdom and his devotion to 
 the interests of the people, as he understood them, 
 would have helped to give to the citizens." 
 
 Hon. John B. McPherson: 
 
 For several years before Mr. MacVeagh removed 
 to Philadelphia it was my good fortune to be a 
 member of liis firm, and the intimacy thus begun 
 was never clouded, and was never interrupted 
 except b}^ the changing circumstances of our lives. 
 He had just returned from his first diplomatic 
 
THE HONORABLE WAYNE MACVEAGH. 19 
 
 post, and was in the maturity of his intellectual 
 powers. Physically, as we all know, he was sup- 
 posed to lack robustness, but, whatever deficiency 
 of bodily vigor there may have been, it was cer- 
 tainly neither a serious nor a continuous handicap, 
 and during the period I have in mind it was rarely 
 even noticeable. Indeed, when I recall my early 
 impressions, I see a man abounding in the joy of 
 life, a body fully adequate to any reasonable de- 
 mand, and a mind whose alertness and perpetual 
 interest in whatever was best never failed to be a 
 stimulus. I shall always remember gratefully the 
 inspiring influence he seemed to radiate, his wide 
 and appreciative knowledge of books and of other 
 fine and beautiful things, his suggestive talk im- 
 pressed wdth the unmistakable quaUty that comes 
 from reflection and from the constant look below the 
 surface, the clarity of his speech, the frank gaiety of 
 liis maimer, his talent for friendship, the cheery out- 
 look—in a word, his well-rounded attractiveness. 
 
 And, of course, these and other marked char- 
 acteristics showed themselves with due variation 
 on the professional side of his Ufe. His gifts and 
 attainments as a lawyer are well known to this 
 meeting, and will no doubt be spoken of by others. 
 
20 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 I shall only say a word about them. During his 
 early and less occupied years at the bar he had 
 worked and studied hard, and his retentive memory 
 held fast whatever he had thus acquired, and pre- 
 sented it for use to one of the quickest and readiest 
 minds I have ever encountered. If I may repeat 
 the somewhat vivid phrase of one who also knew 
 him well — "He could take up water as he ran" 
 with almost uncanny ease, and this quahty, com- 
 bined with the rest of his formidable equipment, 
 made him a foe to be feared, and a most comfort- 
 ing associate. His store of weapons was instantly 
 at command, and sometimes he drew from the 
 most unexpected source. I remember his telling 
 me that in the defense of Udderzook for murder — 
 a celebrated case forty years ago — part of a justly 
 admired cross-examination that destroyed a hostile 
 witness was directly suggested by the poetry of 
 Wordsworth. Then, too, he not only rejoiced 
 in combat and shrank from no antagonist, but he 
 was possessed of a happy audacity that often car- 
 ried him smihng out of an awkward corner, while 
 his contagious himior saved the situation from 
 offense. He was so clearly fitted for large affairs 
 and for wide opportunities that no one was sur- 
 
THE HONORABLE WAYNE MACVEAGH. 21 
 
 prised when he left the narrower field in which I 
 first came to know him. As age advanced and laid 
 its hand upon him, he gradually turned to other 
 occupations and found diversion for his leisure in 
 the social life that always gave him such satisfaction. 
 In the most recent years the Bar has scarcely known 
 him, but among the reasons for doing his memory 
 honor, his distinction as a lawyer must always take 
 high place. Even if he had been notliing but a 
 lawyer, this meeting would find the amplest justi- 
 fication; that he was much more, it is superfluous 
 to add. In several directions his career was dis- 
 tinguished; as a whole, it was unusual, and in 
 whatever he did he bore himself as the man he 
 was, capable, accompUshed, pubUc-spirited, with a 
 high sense of honor and a character unsullied. I 
 cannot speak of him in the more personal relation 
 he sustained to his closer friends, except to say 
 that he has gone away and has left us sorrowing. 
 
 John Cadwalader, Esq.: 
 
 The life of Wayne MacVeagh has been so full of 
 activities and general usefulness that it can be 
 discussed from many points of view. My personal 
 association with him began very early. His father 
 
22 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 was a client of my father, and his first cousin, 
 Charles S. Lincoln, was long in my father's office 
 and afterwards was the clerk of the United States 
 District Court. 
 
 I had a very interesting conversation not long 
 ago with the Hon. Andrew D. White about the 
 class at Yale of 1853, of which both he and Mac 
 Veagh were members, and I recall his description 
 of Mac Veagh and the way in which he at once com- 
 manded the attention and respect of his classmates. 
 Mac Veagh entered the class in the junior year, by 
 which time the men had secured the recognition 
 which they were hkely to retain throughout their 
 college hfe, and it was difficult for a new man to 
 secure a place among the leaders. Mr. White told 
 me of the impression made by the sUght, pale 
 young man when he arose to make his first recita- 
 tion, which I think was in rendering a Satire of 
 Juvenal. He showed such original abihty and thor- 
 ough preparation that he left no doubt in the 
 minds of his classmates that a man of the first rank 
 had joined them, and he has never fallen below it 
 in his long life. 
 
 Today we are meeting as his brother lawyers to 
 record our regard and respect for his abihty as a 
 
THE HONORABLE WAYNE MACVEAGH. 23 
 
 lawyer, and where these are truly felt in our pro- 
 fession, no higher credit can be given to any man. 
 
 It is fitting that the meeting should be held in 
 this Supreme Court room where his voice has been 
 so often and most effectively heard. 
 
 Mr. MacVeagh proved an exception to what is 
 usually the case when a lawyer breaks away from 
 the routine of his profession and enters public 
 Hfe. It is rare for any man to return and regain 
 a commanding position at the bar, and, as I have 
 said, Mr. MacVeagh was a marked exception to 
 this rule, as he did so more than once. 
 
 He was successful from the outset and was very 
 early the District Attorney of Chester County, the 
 place of his birth, and before he was thirty became 
 a great power, poUtically, in the State. At the 
 age of thirty, in the year of the battle of Gettys- 
 burg, he was the Chairman of the Republican State 
 Committee, and Governor Curtin owed more to 
 him than any one else in securing his election. 
 
 The varied posts of honor which he filled in 
 diplomatic hfe, in the cabinet and as the leader in 
 many movements for improving poUtical condi- 
 tions, such as the reform of the civil service and 
 the reform movements at different times to check 
 
24 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 the corruption so widespread under our political 
 system, are known to many. 
 
 His capacity for dealing with difficult problems 
 was often shown; but I think his success in in- 
 ducing the State officials of Louisiana who had 
 been seated at the same time that the electoral 
 vote of the State had been credited to Mr. Hayes, 
 to surrender their offices, was most remarkable. 
 Mr. Tilden had undoubtedly secured a larger 
 support than the State Democratic ticket, and it 
 was difficult to show the justice of removing the 
 RepubUcans who ran on the ticket with Mr. Hayes 
 and to convince them that they had been defeated 
 while Mr. Hayes retained his place. 
 
 He spoke with great eloquence at times, and could 
 use bitter sarcasm and the severest invectives when 
 he thought the occasion demanded it. The use- 
 fulness of a man of such varied power and aggres- 
 sive force cannot be overestimated. 
 
 Though he had not been as vigorous during the 
 last months of his life, his letter to the President, 
 urging a very different foreign policy from that 
 which Mr. Wilson has pursued, was as trenchant 
 and forcible as anything that has ever come from 
 his pen. 
 
THE HONORABLE WAYNE MACVEAGH. 25 
 
 Mr. MacVeagh's career reminds us again of the 
 fact that young men seem to have ceased to secure 
 any prominence in any fields of activity. This is 
 a distinct loss in this age. The value of counsel 
 and advice of those matured and experienced has 
 always been great; but there is a greater need for 
 the active forces which are only possible in the 
 younger years of man's life. It is the knowledge 
 of what the man has done in his youth which secures 
 for him the respect and confidence in his later 
 years. 
 
 Mr. MacVeagh's success came, of course, from 
 the same causes which are essential to real success 
 at all times. It was gained by indomitable industry, 
 close study and concentrated effort. Genius may 
 shine out brilUantly at times, but even true ability 
 depends upon unfailing effort and constant prepara- 
 tion for great results. 
 
 Pennsylvania has lost in Mr. MacVeagh one of 
 its great men, and I am glad to stand here today 
 and pay in a small way my tribute to an unusually 
 useful life and to unite in the deep regret for the 
 loss of such an honored citizen. 
 
26 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 A. H. Wintersteen, Esq.: 
 
 " The clouds that gather round the setting sun 
 Do take a sober coloring from an eye 
 That hath kept watch o'er man's mortality." 
 
 The death of a lawyer and man of such singular 
 claim to the tribute of our Bar as the claims of 
 Wayne MacVeagh, ought not for our own sake, no 
 less than for the sake of those whose grief at his 
 loss is more personal, to be allowed to pass without 
 some memorial recognition. A score or more of 
 3'ears ago, when he was an active leader among us, 
 with others of his contemporaries, most of whom 
 have since passed into the realms of shade, his 
 death would have drawn us together with com- 
 pelling force, to speak his worth and to mourn his 
 loss. Those of us who took some part in the Ufe 
 of his time and were in contact with him in some 
 of his work, are unwilling to let the hungry genera- 
 tions tread his memory down, without filing some 
 protest, while we celebrate the fame that was his, 
 and the fame that is ours as a Bar, because it was his. 
 
 We feel at times, as Lowell wrote in his Com- 
 memoration Ode: 
 
 "Whatever 'scaped Oblivion's subtle wrong 
 Save a few clarion names or golden threads of song?" 
 
THE HONORABLE WAYNE MACVEAGH. 27 
 
 In such a mood temptation comes to withhold 
 all expression of tribute to the departed, however 
 great or worthy, knowing as we do how feeble and 
 ineffective any words we could utter must be in 
 staying time's remorseless hand. But our better 
 instinct reminds us of our debt to the past, and to 
 the men of Hght and leading of the past, who have 
 helped to make us what we are; and it becomes, 
 therefore, a duty as well as a high privilege to tell 
 our obligation, even though our words die and 
 pass into nothingness, as dies and passes the gener- 
 ation that sees their birth. That the evening and 
 the night come cannot make less real, or take its 
 splendor from, the glad day that has been ours. 
 And so when a great leader dies, the hght that shone 
 for him and us, and shone through him to us, 
 though it has become only a memory, still remains 
 a possession which we may call our own, and as 
 such cherish while we live. 
 
 We are entitled to be proud of the life and career 
 of Wayne MacVeagh, not only because in him nature 
 spent herself lavishly in gifts of mind, but also 
 because, true to his convictions of what was 
 right, he used those gifts generously for the better- 
 ment and advancement of his time. He saw life 
 
28 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 clearly and he saw it whole, and his power of utter- 
 ance and persuasion was such that he made us 
 also see it whole. As a forensic lawyer, as we 
 know, he was keen, incisive, alert, acute and bril- 
 liant. No element of strength in his own case 
 failed of appreciation and fullest avail ; no weakness 
 in his opponent's eluded his detection and exposure. 
 His intellect was comprehensive, expansive, all- 
 embracing. The joys of the mind were his to the 
 full, and he made us all partakers of his joy. He 
 brought breadth and spaciousness into every at- 
 mosphere he entered, and left it clearer and more 
 life-giving. 
 
 My estimate of Mr. MacVeagh — of the man and 
 the lawyer as I knew him — is based on daily inter- 
 course more than twenty years ago, while for a 
 dozen crowded years, first as a student, partly 
 under his direction, then as an assistant, and later 
 as an associate, I was privileged to know him and 
 his work. He had long been distinguished in the 
 state and nation, and, after retiring from the Fed- 
 eral cabinet on the death of Garfield, had settled 
 down to practice at this Bar. He was then in the 
 fullness of his intellectual vigor, though his physical 
 strength was always slight. I know of few men 
 
THE HONORABLE WAYNE MACVEAGH. 29 
 
 to whom the satisfactions of the intellectual life 
 were keener than they were to him. His mind was 
 essentially Hellenic, and, just as to the old Greek 
 the many-sidedness of life and the many aspects 
 of thought presented by it were always appealing, 
 so to him the actions and reactions of the mind on 
 the subject-matters of tasks were a constant source 
 of gratification. He had a fine idealism at the 
 core of his nature, which shaped and moulded him, 
 and determined his tastes and choices. This made 
 him at times impatient with the established order, 
 and prompted him to spend much of his energj-^ in 
 a public way, in protest and appeal. He was, 
 however, constructive in the best sense, and the 
 impress he made on his time was healthy, inspiring 
 and stimulating. We need just such men at all 
 times to call us away from a too-ready tolerance of 
 convention, and to make us fully realize the neces- 
 sity of orderly progress as an essential feature of 
 healthy hving, whether personal, social or pohtical. 
 Less than ten days ago he was laid beneath the 
 beeches in that beautiful home of the dead, the 
 cemetery of the Church of the Redeemer, at Bryn 
 Mawr. Next to him hes the body of that rail- 
 road statesman, Alexander J. Cassatt — he of the 
 
30 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 vision and the faculty divine. There our friend 
 rests, gathered in the fullness of time. To use his 
 own phrase in his Phi Beta Kappa oration at Har- 
 vard, he belongs now not to the age, but to the 
 ages. Within our city and about it he most of 
 those with whom, locally, he crossed lances in 
 his time — a glorious company, whom to name 
 would be to catalogue many of the worthies who 
 have helped to make this Bar great. 
 
 No brighter fame belongs to any than to Wayne 
 MacVeagh. He will stand across the past the 
 knightly figure he was. May we not say of him 
 as we say of that Sir Galahad of story, embahned 
 for us and for all time in Tennyson's stately verse: 
 
 " His good blade carved the casques of men, 
 His tough lance thrusted sure, 
 His strength was as the strength of ten, 
 Because his heart was pure. " 
 
 John Hampton Barnes, Esq.: 
 
 Mr. Chairman: — I had not intended to add to 
 what has been so impressively said of Mr. Mac 
 Veagh here today, nor shall I now make a formal 
 address; but I may not let this occasion pass with- 
 out adding a word of tribute to his memory and an 
 
THE HONORABLE WAYNE MacVEAGH. 31 
 
 expression of my sorrow that his Hfe has come to 
 an end. My association professionally with Mr. 
 MacVeagh was comparatively short. It ended 
 when he withdrew from practice here upon the 
 happening of that tragic event in his Ufe, recalled 
 by some of you, the death of his youngest son, his 
 namesake — one of the heaviest blows that any 
 man ever suffered. Happily, he has left older 
 sons surviving him, one of whom is here today, an 
 able and leading member of the New York Bar, 
 who also has sons, so the distinguished name of our 
 friend will be fitly borne and carried on. 
 
 The personal note, which is difficult to keep out 
 of these occasions, is hard to speak. No man who 
 had the opportunity of personal association with 
 Mr. MacVeagh could fail to derive from that gen- 
 erous spirit an example of fair treatment of his 
 fellow-men and fine consideration for the members of 
 the Bar. Of the professional instruction and oppor- 
 tunities for development which came to us who 
 were associated with him, too much may not be 
 said. His marked characteristics in court were 
 courage and readiness; he had great fidehty to his 
 client, as required by the oath of our office, and 
 untiring industry in his cause. 
 
32 IN MEMORY OP 
 
 As I recall the years of professional and personal 
 association with Mr. MacVeagh, I realize how 
 eminently he was one of those men whose earnest- 
 ness of purpose and courage of living gives strength 
 to all of us to go forward for our day, and whose 
 independence of action, high professional attain- 
 ments and distinguished services to his State and 
 country constitute a record of which this Bar is 
 justly proud. 
 
 The Minute was then adopted. 
 The meeting adjourned. 
 
THE HONORABLE WAYNE MACVEAGH. 33 
 
 April 19, 1833— Born near Phcenixville, Chester 
 County, Pennsylvania. 
 
 1853 — Graduated at Yale College. 
 
 1856 — Admitted to the Bar of Chester County. 
 
 1859-64 — District Attorney, Chester County. 
 
 1862 — Captain of Infantry (invasion of Penn- 
 sylvania.) 
 
 1863 — Captain of Cavalry (invasion of Penn- 
 sylvania.) 
 
 1863— Chairman of the Republican State Com- 
 mittee of Pennsylvania. 
 
 1870-71— Minister to Turkey. 
 
 1872-73 — Member of Pennsylvania Constitutional 
 Convention. 
 
 1877 — Head of "MacVeagh Commission" sent to 
 Louisiana to adjust the dispute as to 
 the Presidential election there. 
 
34 IN MEMORY OF THE HON. WAYNE MacVEAGH. 
 
 1881 — Attorney General of United States in the 
 cabinet of President Garfield; resigned 
 on the accession of President Arthur 
 and resumed the practice of the law at 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 1881 — Received a degree of LL.D. from Amherst 
 College. 
 Chairman Civil Service Reform Association of 
 Philadelphia and of the Indian Rights 
 Association. 
 
 1893-97 — Ambassador to Italy. 
 
 1897 — Received a degree of LL.D. from the Univer- 
 sity of Pennsylvania. 
 
 1901 — Delivered the Phi Beta Kappa oration at 
 
 Harvard University. 
 
 1901— Received a degree of LL.D. from Harvard 
 University. 
 
 1903 — Chief Counsel of United States in the Vene- 
 zuela arbitration before The Hague 
 Tribunal. 
 
 January 11, 1917 — Died at his residence, 1719 
 Massachusetts Avenue, Washington, 
 D. C. 
 
LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 
 
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