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The PETERS' Banquet,
TENDERED
The Honorable John A. Peters,
BY
THE PENOBSCOT BAR,
On His Retirement From the Chief Justiceship,
FEBRUARY ist, 1900,
AT THE
BANGOR HOUSE.

Natura il fece, e poi ruppa la stampa.

Published and Printed by
JOHN H. BACON,
Bangor, Maine,
1900.

Committee of Penobscot Bar.

Franklin A. Wilson,
Charles Hamlin,
Frederick H. Appleton,
Charles F. Wood ard,
Matthe'W Laughlin,
Hugh R. Chaplin,
John F. Robinson.

Ca 'IPI^GO

PREFACE.

THE banquet which the Penobscot Bar tendered
to Chief Justice Peters, at the Bangor House,
on February 1, 1900, on his retirement from oflBice,
'was an occasion 'which deserved special com
memoration. It not only marked the voluntary
'withdrawal from the Bench of Maine's most distin
guished Jurist, but also an unequalled gathering
of the leaders of the legal profession of our State.
Senator Hale remarked that he had not seen a more
brilliant assembly of men in the halls of Congress.
Thus, on this occasion a page of personal, political
and legal interest was added to the history of Maine
by brilliant historians, as it were, and Judge Peters'
life and services were commemorated in speeches
that speak out from the printed pages and glow with
the wit, sentiment and affection of the occasion. A
leader at Yale with contemporaries such as Albert
Mathews of The New York Evening Post, James
Hammond Trumbull, and Donald G. Mitchell of
Hartford, and other distinguished men; a leader

at the Harvard I^aw School among Rutherford B.
Hayes, William M. Evarts of New York, and Gen.
Lewis B. Parsons of 111., and other men of note ; a
leader in the House of Representatives among lead
ers such as James A. Garfield, James G. Blaine,
George F. Hoar, Henry ly. Dawes and other famous
men; the most prominent figure of the Supreme
Judicial Court of Maine for years — this is the brief
epitome of the story of the banquet.
There was naturally a desire among those present
that the record should be preserved in permanent
form, and at their request this book was prepared
in the hope that it might serve that purpose and
also brighten the fame of the most distinguished
and beloved Jurist of Maine in his day. It con
tains the complete speeches of Judge Peters, Frank
lin A. Wilson, Chief Justice Wiswell, Governor
Powers, Senator Hale, Associate Justice White-
house, former Associate Justice Symonds, Orville
D. Baker and John F. Lynch; and also letters from
Chief Justice Fuller, of the United States Supreme
Court, Ex-United States Senator Bradbury, Senator
Frye, Ex-Speaker Reed, United States District
Judge Webb, United States Circuit Court of Appeals
Judge Putnam, and others. CHARL,ES HAMIylN,
Bangor, Maine.

The Dinner and Guests.

THE banquet was spontaneous in its origin, and
a hearty, delightful occasion. There was no
ceremonious formality of a state dinner, but it was
a flow of affectionate testimonials, and a companion
ship of men who had temporarily laid aside cares of
life to honor one who was their chief in law and in
friendship, a man who wore well the honors of his
high office and was yet always John Peters. When
his cheery presence was seen on the opening of the
doors of the dining room, all the company sprang to
their feet. Senator Hale leaped upon a chair and
called for cheers. There was a storm of "hurrahs"
and a waving of handkerchiefs as Judge Peters took
his seat. The applause continued and the occasion
for the moment took on the appearance of a college
gathering. There were gray hairs present, but
every man had the heart of a boy then. All through
the banquet itself the spirit was jovial and never
lagged, with a cross fire of wit between the honored
guest and the rest of the company, with the re-

unions of old friends who hailed each other from
table to table, and with music to please the ear and
pretty decorations to satisfy the eye.
Franklin A. Wilson presided and on either side of
the master of ceremonies sat the following: Hon.
John A. Peters, Bangor; Hon. Eugene Hale, EUs-
worth;JIon. J. W. Symonds, Portland; Hon. H. B.
Cleaves, Portland; Hon. Enoch Foster, Portland;
Hon. O. D. Baker, Augusta; Hon. J. F. I^ynch,
Machias; Hon. A. P. Wiswell, Ellsworth; Hon.
Llewellyn Powers, Houlton; Hon. T. H. Haskell,
Portland; Hon. W. P. Whitehouse, Augusta; Hon.
A. R. Savage, Auburn; Hon. W. H. Fogler, Rock
land; Hon. F. A. Powers, Houlton.
Those at the tables were the following:
Mr. E. H. Blake,  Bangor
Mr. H. M. Heath  Augusta
Mr. A. W. King  Ellsworth
Mr. John Scott,  Bath
Mr. C. F. Johnson,  WaterviUe
Mr. W. P. Thompson  Belfast
Mr. W. T. Haines,  WaterviUe
Mr. M. S. Clifford,  Bangor
Mr. W. C. Clark  I^incoln
Mr. George C. Wing  Aubum
Mr. P. H. Gillin,  Bangor
Mr. H. E. Hamlin,  Ellsworth
6

Mr. S. I/. I/arrabee,  Portland
Mr. F. J. Martin,  Bangor
Mr. Don A. H. Powers  Houlton
Mr. L. C. Stearns,  Bangor
Mr. O. F. Fellows,  Bucksport
Mr. Peregrine White  Bangor
Mr. W. H. Mcl^ellan,  Belfast
Mr. Ruel Smith,  Bangor
Mr. 1,. T. Carleton,  Augusta
Mr. B. L. Smith  Patten
Mr. G. M. Warren,  Castine
Mr. F. A. Floyd,  Brewer
Mr. J. A. Peters, Jr.,  Ellsworth
Mr. C. J. Hutchings,  Brewer
Mr. H. J. Chapman,  Bangor
Mr. George T. SewaU,  Old Town
Mr. W. Y. Patch  Bangor
Mr. O. P. Cunningham,  Bucksport
Mr. Geo. E. Gardiner  Bangor
Mr. R. F. Dunton,  Belfast
Mr. A. J. Merrill  Bangor
Mr. A. W. Weatherbee,  Lincoln
Mr. Forrest Goodwin  Skowhegan
Mr. Stanley Plummer,  Dexter
Mr. E. N. Merrill,  Skowhegan
Mr. W. E. Parsons,  Foxcroft
Mr. F. D. Dearth  Dexter
Mr. 1,. B. Deasy,  Bar Harbor
7

Mr. G. M. Seiders  Portland
Mr. T. W. Vose,  Bangor
Mr. W. A. Barbour,  Denver, Col.
Mr. J. E. Moore,  Thomaston
Mr. C. H. Bartlett,  Bangor
Mr. D. N. Mortland,  Rockland
Mr. H. L. Mitchell,  Bangor
Mr. G. E. Hughes  Bath
Mr. B. B. Murray  Calais
Mr. A. M. Spear  Gardiner
Mr. H. Hudson,  Guilford
Mr. C. A. Baiky,^  Bangor
Mr. F. E. Timberlake  Phillips
Mr. D. W. Nason,  Bangor
Mr. J. H. Manley, ...:... Augusta
Mr. W. H. Jose  Bangor
Mr. J. B. Peaks,  Dover
Mr. Edward Stetson,  Bangor
Mr. A. I/. Simpson,  Bangor
Mr. J. Williamson,  Belfast
Mr. A. W. Paine,  Bangor
Mr. ly. C. Cornish,  Augusta
Mr. G. D. Bisbee  Rumford Falls
Mr. W. H. White  I^ewiston
Mr. J. A. Morrill,  Auburn
Mr. Seth M. Carter  I<e'wiston
Mr. F. M. Higgins  lyimerick
Mr. S. F. Humphrey,  Bangor

Mr. H. W. Mayo,  Hampden
Mr. E. P. Spoflord  Deer Isle
Mr. W. H. Powell  Old Town
Mr. I. W. Dyer  Portland
Mr. J. W. Manson  PIttsfield
Mr. R. S. Partridge,  Whitefield
Mr. W. H. Newell  Lewiston
Mr. J. B. Redman  Ellsworth
Mr. G. H. Smith,  Presque Isle
Mr. C. J. Dunn,  Orono
Mr. Clarence Hale,  Portland
Mr. J. R. Mason,  Bangor
Mr. Edward Woodman,  Portland
Mr. H. R. Chaplin,  Bangor
Mr. J. F. Robinson 
Mr. C. F. Woodard, 
Mr. F. H. Appleton 
Mr. Matthew Laughlin, 
Mr. A. H. Harding 
Mr. F. W. Eastman, 
Mr. H. J. Preble, 
Mr. T. H. Wentworth,  Bradford
Mr. F. W. Knowlton,  Old Town
Mr. Hugo Clark  Bangor
Mr. J. O. Bradbury,  Saco
Mr. F. H. Parkhurst,  Bangor
Mr. H. H. Patten, 
Mr. C. R. Brown,  9

Mr. C. F. Sweet,  Bangor
Mr. Victor Brett, 
Mr. G. W. Howe,  Milo
Mr. Norman Wardwell,  Bangor
Mr. A. L. Blanchard, 
Mr. H. M. Cook 
Mr. D. B. Young, 
Mr. R. P. Plaisted, 
Mr. E. C. Donworth 
Mr. B. C. Additon, 
Mr. W. H. Grady 
Mr. B. J. Dunn 
Mr. George Worster, 
Mr. T. B. Towle, 
Mr. T. D. Bailey, 
Mr. E. M. Simpson, 
Mr. J. D. Rice 
Mr. W. B. Peirce, 
Mr. E. C. Ryder 
Mr. J. F. Sprague,  Monson
Mr. F. E. Guernsey  Dover
Mr. L. B. Waldron,  Dexter
Mr. Clarence Scott,  Old Town
Mr. J. W. Crosby,  Dexter
Mr. F. J. Whiting,  Old Town
Mr. F. I. CampbeU,  Cherryfield
Mr. J. F. Gould,  Old Town
Mr. Wilson made a felicitous toastmaster.
10

Speech of Franklin A. "Wilson.

Gentlemen op the Bar of the State:
1 DESIRE in behalf of the Penobscot bar to welcome
the lawyers of the State of Maine, who reside out
side the borders of Penobscot county, and are with
us tonight by invitation, to join with us on this most
auspicious occasion in doing honor to the chief
citizen of the State, the Honorable John A. Peters,
the retiring Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial
Court of the State of Maine.
We have regretted exceedingly that the restricted
accommodations of this hotel did not permit us to
make our invitation so general that all the lawyers
in Maine who love and venerate our guest of
honor could have been properly entertained, but as
we could only have entertained in a fitting manner
a few scores where hundreds would have come, we
have been compelled to confine our invitations to
those members of the Bar in each county who have
been most closely brought in contact with our
honored guest in times past, hoping that thus ex
pression might be given to the universal feeling of
11

respect and affection which has accompanied the
learned Judge from the time he first assumed the
ermine even unto the present day without variable
ness or shadow of turning.
I bid you welcome, thrice welcome.
We bid you, too, welcome, Messrs. Associate
Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court of the State
of Maine, who honor us by your presence on this
occasion of our assembling together to do honor to
one who has so long presided over your delibera
tions, and to whom you feel attached in an unusual
manner, and especially to you, Mr. Chief Justice,
the successor in your high office to one between
whom and yourself the usual ties of blood have
been supplemented for a few years past by the ties
which unite co-workers in any craft together. May
you live long to enjoy the honors and worthily per
form the duties of your high office.
The guest of honor to-night, the ex-Chief Justice
of the Supreme Judicial Court of the State of Maine,
came to the bar in the year 1844, fresh from his
classical and legal studies, rarely equipped by
natural endowment and conscientious study for a
life work in his chosen profession. That work has
been done. It has been well done, and now on the
first day of the year, in accordance with a deliberate
plan and not in obedience to a sudden impulse, he
voluntarily, having five years of an unexpired term
12

before him, resigns to the governor of the State,
this high office which he has adorned by his great
learning in the law, his patient and diligent per
formance of all his judicial duties, with the dignity
befitting the high office, combined with a kindliness
of manner and courtesy, which, whilst it challenged
the respect, won the hearts of the practitioners who
came before him.
It is an evidence of greatness, this very act of
surrendering this great trust voluntarily, against the
unanimous wish of the gentlemen of the bar, who
know better than others the qualities that character
ize the ideal judge.
And welcome also to the two members of the Bar
here to-night who felt compelled to retire from the
Bench on account of the meagre compensation which
our State pays its Judges as salary, in order to earn
money enough to enable them to lay by something
for the time when age or disease render labor im
possible — a sad, sad commentary upon the folly of
our law-makers; jou stand as a constant protest
against the niggardliness and shortsightedness of
the law-makers of the State of Maine, who fail to
comprehend the fact that they owe it alike to the
poor and to the rich, that the ablest lawyers be
placed upon the Bench. When the poor man's
rights are invaded or threatened, his inability to
employ the ablest counsel shall not operate to his
13

detriment, if upon the Bencb sits one learned in
the law and independent to declare it, whilst the
rich man would often be powerless in litigation
against the appeal of the demagogue if the learned
and fearless judge did not take care that the scales
of justice were held in an even hand.
Professional decorum would never until now per
mit us to speak the full feeling of our hearts to our
honored guest. So long as he wore the robes of
office that speech which will now be rated as the
calm judgment of his contemporaries, as the truth
ful expression of hearts filled to overflowing, would
have been criticised as fulsome flattery, actuated
perhaps by improper motives, and revealing a lack
of delicacy; but who shall say nay to us to-night, if
acting as historians we should permit our honored
guest to get a glimpse of his own immortality, and
have for an hour the pleasure of enjoying his
posthumous fame, during his lifetime.
But this is not to be done by myself. It is my
duty, as it is my pleasure, to give an order of pro
ceeding to these exercises, starting with the proposi
tion that the members of the Penobscot Bar desire
to give their visiting friends the remaining hours of
the night.
Mr. Ex-Chief Justice Peters: It is my great privi
lege to assure you of the affection felt towards you
by the members of your old Home Bar. We would
14

fain be sharers, even if by reflected rays in some
slight degree, in the glory of the reputation for in
tegrity, learning, courtesy and kindness of demeanor
towards your fellow men, which by common consent
attach to your name. Receive the assurance, if it
be grateful to you, that the example of your life
and administration will be a constant stimulus to
the lawyers of this State who have sat under your
wise administration of the highest trust in the State
for these many years that are past; and to our child
ren and our children's children, will be told with
pride and commendation the story of your judicial
career. Serus, serus in coelum redeas.
When Judge Peters arose to reply he was once
again received with a spontaneous outburst of
cheers. After silence had been restored he spoke
as follows:

16

Speech of Ex-Chief Justice Peters.

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Bar:
'Vy/HILE I have left the bench, it is evident
Vv enough from this gathering' of lawyers that
the bar has not quite left me. I thank you for this
splendid manifestation so far as belonging to me, only
I am afraid I am not worthy of it. The inspiration
of the evening almost lifts me from my feet.
Retiring from professional life after an active
participation in its scenes for nearly fifty-six years,
the great past naturally obtrudes itself before my
mind on this occasion, and as no special sentiment
or subject is assigned me, I hope I may be pardon
ed, if, in response to your cordial welcome, I am
tempted to indulge in some remarks concerning my
own experiences and myself.
Benjamin Franklin prided himself, so his bi
ographers tell us, in saying that he never asked for,
declined or resigned an office. I have had just a
contrary experience, for I confess that I have sought
and also willingly declined and resigned offices.
And I am constantly assured by my own judgment
16

that I struck a happy point of time at which to sur
render back to the state, I trust without any spot
upon it, my commission as Chief Justice. My age,
now bringing me nearly in sight of the summit of
four-score years, strongly stamps its approval upon
my act. Only one other Chief Justice in this state
ever attained to such an age as I have while in ser
vice on the bench, one whose memory is especially
endeared to me and revered by all of us, and that
was my immediate predecessor in office, Chief
Justice Appleton. The commission of Mellen, our
first Chief Justice, expired by the then constitution
al limitation, not existing since his day, when he
reached the age of seventy. Weston retired from
office at the age of fifty- nine; Whitman at seventy-
one; Shepley at sixty-six; Tenney at sixty-nine;
Appleton at seventy-nine, just two years older than
myself at my retirement.
And only one of all the other members of our
court ever reached my age while on the bench, or
ever came very near it, and he at the end of his
term was two months older than I at the end of my
term. I refer to Judge Walton, one of the splendid
lights of the Maine bar and bench, who only a week
ago passed from this life to his final rest. His
death now leaves me as the only survivor of those
who were on the bench in 1873 when I first became
a member of the court. I have long ago passed the
17

limit of judicial tenure ever existing in any of the
states where such tenure has been fixed by law for
any period short of the lifetime of the incumbent.
The constitutional limit in this state was formerly
seventy years. It is now that in the state of New
York and in most of the other states of the Union.
The limitation was once sixty years in New York,
unfortunately applying to Chancellor Kent whose
judicial career became constitutionally ended at that
age. Judge Kent of our own state, a relative of
the great Chancellor, who pursued his legal studies
with the Chancellor for a time, left our bench in
1873 when seventy-two years old, while in full
mental and bodily health, thinking it unwise for
him at that age to become an applicant' for the
position for seven years more; and it turned out
that he would not have lived through another term
had he been appointed. The average age of the
signers of the Declaration of Independence was
only sixty-five years and ten months, and I have
always supposed it to be a sure evidence that im
mortality is better than any earthly life, that the
Lord saw fit to call the signers of that inspired
document home so early.
Dr. Isaac I/incoln of Washington County, who
at the age of seventy-five was in the early history
of this state chosen a member of the Governor's
council, wrote the Governor that if he were ten
18

years older than he was he might accept the office,
but that at his age he knew better than to do so.
I think that, were I ten or even five years older than
I am, I wouldn't know any better than to continue
in the judicial office for my lifetime. And it is
barely possible that I should not have known
enough even now to resign my position were the
salary of the office twice as large as it is. It is not,
however, necessary to remind ourselves how much
the present salary is. I will say this much about it,
however, that to my knowledge there are gentlemen
about these tables to-night who have received for a
single fee, or for services in a single cause, a larger
sum than any judicial salary in this state. I once
foolishly asked a Chancellor of New Jersey, my
college classmate, what his salary was as Chancellor.
He said it was then only ten thousand dollars, but
that there was an official recommendation to make
it fifteen thousand. "What is yours?" he says.
Oh, my reply was, not even as much as ten thou
sand. I have been deceiving and dodging on that
question all my judicial years when away from
home, never being willing to confess abroad how
small the judicial salary is in our state.
But this consequence follows my retirement from
office, that as I lay down the sceptre another of the
family takes it up, the succession running with the
blood. My respect for the office vacated by me will
19

never cease, and I hope that it will becom.e thrice
famed in its descent to the second generation.
I came to the bar in 1844, continuing in the
practice for twenty-nine years. I was fond of try
ing cases and of constant professional work. No
man can succeed much in his profession unless he
loves the work to be done in it. The cases reported
in the books during my time at the bar show the
extent of my practice. It certainly was a very busy
life with me. And I desire to say to the younger
brethren of the profession that any success which
followed my efforts at the bar was accomplished
only by untiring industry and attention to business.
I adopted so far as I reasonably could the motto of
Voltaire, "Alwa3'S at work." There is no such
special advantage to be obtained by a lawyer who is
ambitious to excel as an advocate as in the prepara
tion of his cases. A mechanic to do perfect work
first sharpens his tools. And as we sow so shall we
reap. The power of England in her conflicts with
other nations, said a French statesman nearly a
hundred years ago, was in the genius of her Pitt for
masterful preparation. I had never faith in any
transcendent conception of the trial of a cause in
court, believing that, like any other battle, the sim
plest plan of attack or defense, honestly and sturdi
ly executed, is the best. My experiences at the bar
were agreeable. I never had any chafing 'with the
20

court, nor much with opposing counsel. Rarely
had I any questions with clients, never sued a client
for professional services, and shortly after I left the
bar my clients owed me nothing. To those who
could not or would not readily pay me I declared a
general amnesty on my books.
Experience at the bar was my indispensable as
well as profitable education for the bench, where I
found perhaps the most congenial and enjoyable
occupation of my life for nearly twenty-seven years.
What my measure of success has been in the judicial
career the bar must be appealed to for its decision.
On this question the lawyers become themselves the
judges. I only know that it was my firm resolution
to do all the good I could in the cause of justice and
truth. Any judicial reputation acquired at nisi
prius is of course ephemeral at the best. Any
account of daily nisi prius administration is a record
written in the sand, and when the tide flows over it
the record is gone. The true merit of a judge in
the long run becomes more permanently and better
known by his written opinions. It has been excel
lently observed that, taking all the opinions of a
judicial tribunal together, they are as a mirror in
which the fashions and passions of the times may be
seen, reflecting the changes and growth of the law.
Taken individually they reflect in large degree the
character and personality of the persons writing
21

them. How nobly has this judicial faculty been
ascribed to Chief Justice Marshall of whom it has
been most eloquently said, "He found the constitu
tion paper, he made it power. He found it a skele
ton, he clothed it with flesh and blood ! "
My share of opinion-work consists of very nearly
six hundred opinions printed in the books of report,
besides many rescripts and oral opinions not printed,
these opinions constituting six hundred spokes in a
single wheel, and I trust there is not a defective
spoke in the wheel. Our court by its acceptance of
them so decides. In motion, and the law is always
in motion, this concentrated force ought to be able
to cast at least some light into the dark corners of
the law in this state. But for what they are really
worth they are able to speak for themselves now
and forever. While it is not for me to estimate the
value to the public of this an almost life-work, I
can properly state what character it was at any rate
my endeavor to infuse into them. My principal aim
was to make them as replete with common sense as
possible, disregarding absolutely senseless technical
ities, however venerable the technicality might be,
so far as I could do so and at the same time pre
serve the substantial rights of all parties. Sense is
strength everywhere. It was my effort to make the
doctrines maintained by these opinions exponents,
as far as I could, of the principles of truth and jus-
22

tice, of courage and honesty, of liberality and
humanity. I intended to make my written opinions
brief and at the same time so clear as not to require
the application of an X-Ray process to ascertain
their meaning; and that was not a result attainable
without expending much patience and painstaking
in the work. Cervantes speaks of ' 'short sentences
drawn from long experience." But brevity some
times beclouds the meaning. Forty to fifty years
ago I presented to our court a very important will
for a construction of its provisions, and, when I got
the opinion of the court in the case, it was so brief
I was afraid to act upon it, not being so sure as I
felt I ought to be of what the court meant. So I
gave the elder Judge Shepley, who was just then
retired from the bench, quite a fee to give me his
written opinion of the meaning of the opinion of
the court, — to construe for me the judicial con
struction. That experience was always a lesson to
me to endeavor to avoid any careless or meaningless
expression in my own opinions.
Certain things are not to be found in my judicial
productions. I never believed in the license of
flavoring an opinion with a pun, joke, or witticism
of any kind. I never published a dissenting opinion
or note of my own. I have felt ugly enough in a
few cases to do so, and have internally sworn that I
would, but never did. I think it expedient in rare
23

instances only. Dissenting opinions sometimes
represent more of the feeling of the writer than
sober discussion of the law. But judges do not
think alike on this question. I tbink it may be
regarded as gratifying evidence of the faithfulness
of my own work that out of the six hundred opin
ions drawn by me there never was but one rejected
by the court, and on that one, about the best of all,
the court was divided three to five. Chief Justice
Appleton used to say facetiously that rejected
opinions came round into fashion in about seven
years as a rule, and that was virtually the history
of this case. But 600 to i, not 16 to i, is a satis
factory record indeed. I do not mean to be under
stood that there were not individual oppositions and
dissents to some of my opinions, but I do say that
there never was but one of them that did not finally
prevail with the court. Nor do I mean to intimate
that my own dissent to the opinions of other judges
was at all exceptionally effective, for I was much
more successful in defense of my own than in the
attack upon the opinions of my associates.
Apropos of what I have been saying, my friend,
the Hon. Orville D. Baker, now sitting near me,
once said not a displeasing thing of my judicial
work, during an address before the State of Maine
Bar Association, when he said, speaking of me, "In
whose hands no technicality has ever been suffered
24

to prevent the working out of justice." My soul
responds to that sentiment, for such as that has been
my theory and aim in all my years of judicial life.
Nor am I dissatisfied with a pen-portrait of myself
lately appearing in the Star- Herald newspaper of
Presque Isle, in which I think I can see myself as
others see me. I can only partially quote the
article, which, after describing me as a person of
plain, simple and unaffected habits, who has been
from first to last without a touch of vanity, selfish
ness or arrogance, not relying on any homage to
official position, further says: "The retiring chief
justice has shown people how seemingly easy a
thing it is to uphold the dignity of a high office,
and yet to live among men companionably, moving
among them as their friend and their equal." If
these approbations of my judicial life and character
are deserved, it is a realization greater than I have
ever even expected, and I am more than content
with them, for according to me just exactly the
reputation I should be most ambitious to acquire.
Mr. President: In surveying the fifty-six years
of my professional life, the vista between 1844 and
1900, I can appreciate that the law and the practice
of the law in this state have gone through remarkable
changes in my day. There has been a harvest of
improvements in the fashions of the law, so to speak.
The movement has been in no sense convulsive, but
25

rather gradual in most respects and regularly pro
gressive. Much that was merely sentiment in the
beginning has become irrevocable fact in the end.
Among the prominent changes noticeable is the fact
that in 1844 there were two trial courts having in
great measure the same jurisdiction, and an appeal
allowable from one to the other. That expensive
machinery of the practice has long ago disappeared
and would appear unnatural enough to us to see it
now. From 1843 to 1859 the statute allowed an
admission to the bar without examination upon a
certificate of good moral character, and even the
moral character was not of much account. Some
one has said that every person has a good character,
good for something or good for nothing. Through
the wide-open door provided by the fanatical act of
1843 not a few ignorant and reckless men came into
the bar. The statute was called by its authors "a
lawyer-killer," but it killed the clients instead of
lawyers and in a way helped the good lawyers by
the commotions and kind of business stirred up by
the undisciplined men. In 1844 ^^^ ^^r long after
wards, in no case, civil or criminal, were parties
allowed to testify in their own behalf. But the law
is liberal enough in that regard now. The perplex
ities encountered by the rule then can only be im
agined. Short-hand reporting was then unknown
in our courts. The absence of this modern facility
26

of business imposed an immensity of labor upon
court and counsel, and engendered many conflicts
between the lawyers and even between the lawyers
and the court. There was no hour rule or limit for
argument, and an advocate could talk to the jury
for two hours or two days as he pleased, and in a
certain case where I was counsel my opponent talk
ed two days and two hours and would have talked
even longer had he not been physically unable to go
on. The jurisdiction and practice in equity was
extremely limited fifty years ago, and perhaps there
may be ten times or even twenty times more equity
business now in our courts than there was then.
Divorce cases have multiplied most extraordinarily
in the same period, and in a greater degree probably
than suits in equity. There was only one cause for
divorce by the court for some time after I came to
the bar, and occasionally divorces were granted by
the legislature. One famous divorce case originat
ing in Bangor, was heard before the legislature, and
the divorce granted, which was said to have cost
the petitioner thousands of dollars. The legislation
in this state, within the same period, affecting the
rights and remedies which have been accorded to
married women respecting their own separate prop-
perty, have been utterly subversive of the old com
mon law governing the subject, actually destroying
the whole ancient fabric root and branch. And who

27

has not noticed the beneficent changes that have
taken place within a half century in the criminal
law of our state, and in the amelioration of the
ancient severities practiced in its administration?
These marked changes, very cursorily stated, which
I have alluded to as taking place within a little
more than a half century under my own eye, indi
cate the progressive legal development in our own
state, and shows that the law, with its tendency to
assume new and sensible adaptations, is a gigantic
as well as an indispensable power for constantly
promoting the welfare and security of society and
advancing its civilization.
It is not to be wondered at that so many of our
young men are ambitious to become lawyers. There
can be no greater e'sddence of the fascination of the
profession than to behold the constantly increasing
number of practitioners. And our own country
seems to afford the largest and most attractive field
for the practice of law. It is computed that the
fraternity averages i to every 800 inhabitants of our
states and territories, while in Great Britain the
proportion of lawyers is not so great as that. In
France it is only i to about 6000 of the population,
and in Germany i to 7000 or more. In Russia, as
might be supposed, the lawyers are few indeed. It
is only where personal liberty is most respected that
the law becomes supreme. In the United States
28

there are now over ninety law schools, sending new
candidates into the field in crowds. But numbers
need be no discouragement to one who is inspired
with an ambition and determination to succeed.
All cannot of course reach the upper rounds of the
ladder, but there are many respectable levels all the
way up before the summit is reached.
And now, gentlemen, it is time to close my
response to the very kind and flattering introduction
which the president of the evening has given me.
I have perhaps already said too much of myself and
but little of you. But I wish to express again, as
I have done before on other occasions my veneration
of the law, and my lasting regard and respect for
the lawyers who administrate it. I believe, as I
have often said on other public occasions, that no
profession or business ranks higher for integrity
than does the practice of the law. And certainly
there is less hypocrisy in the character of lawyers
than is found in most other classes of men. God
hates all the mean qualities, at the head of which
stand hypocrisy and cowardice, preferring homage
from consistent even if jolly worshippers instead.
Brother Hale here at my right says this company
partakes of the nature of the ex-chief justice. If
that ^be so, ^I am Jproud of it. Do you suppose
29

any very solemn, straightlaced chief justice could
ever gather this sort of a company about him?
I do not expect ever to see all these faces again to
gether on earth, but as most of the lawyers go
finally to the same place, and that the favored one,
I confidently believe I shall meet you all again on
the other side of the great river. And I shall never
forget you nor these scenes until all things earthly
with me shall fade away and vanish forever.
The foregoing not containing many of the off
hand remarks that were interspersed by the ex-
Chief Justice with the more serious portion of his
response, remarks evoked by the passing incidents
of the occasion, or in running colloquy with those
about him, the omission is explained by the report
ers; one newspaper saying of it :
"The venerable hero of the occasion talked for
half an hour and as usual was the despair of the
reporters. No abstract has ever yet done justice to
his after-dinner speeches. They are unreportable,
even as one may not carry away with him the sparkle
of the champagne." * * * And so it went on,
gaiety and gravity alternating in a continuous
stream of chat such as Judge Peters alone seems to
be the master of. Then in closing he said, with
touching emphasis :
"I never expect to see all these faces together in
30

one place on this earth again. But I agree to meet
you all on the other side of the River Jordan, and
if I get there first I'll meet you and welcome you
and give you quarters when you come ! ' '
Another reporter said: "When the renewed
cheering had subsided Judge Peters went into one
of his delightfully disconnected chats such as bar
diners always expect from him — not a speech by
any means but a sort of informal talk, leaning on
the back of a chair and picking up personal friends
through the assembly and making those sparkling,
helter-skelter comments, tinged always with kind
ness though keen with wit, which have made the
retired Chief Justice famous as an after-dinner speak
er. The most accomplished reporter of history
could never transcribe even a hint of this sort of
thing — years ago those in Maine abandoned the
attempt. There was nothing to do but sit and
laugh with the rest and appreciate the slanting
shafts that sped around the room as the perennial
humor of Maine's Grand Old Man bloomed and
freshened as if it had never before been drawn
upon."

31

Speech of Chief Justice Wiswell.

Mr. President and Brother LA's\rYERS:
IT is not entirely with feelings of unalloyed joy
that the members of the Supreme Court are
present upon this occasion. We, of course, delight
in doing honor unto him who until so recently has
been our associate and chief and leader, but we
cannot fail to appreciate that this magnificent
assemblage of the lawyers of the state, this
great compliment paid by the Penobscot Bar to one
of its members, the distinguished guest of the eve
ning, is in commemoration to some extent, at least,
of his recent retirement from that position with
which he has been so long identified and which has
been so greatly honored by his occupancy; and we
appreciate that in the future performance of our
duties, oftentimes difficult and troublesome, we shall
not receive the inestimable benefit of his sound
advice and wise counsel.
It has been said by your President that one of the
marked characteristics of your distinguished guest
32

has always been his great love for the truth. This
is undoubtedly true ; and the principal work of
courts in the administration of justice is a search
for the truth. It may be as to some great principle
which will govern and control human action, or it
may be only to determine as to where lies the truth
between the conflicting stories of contesting liti
gants ; but in one way or in the other, or in both,
the great work, as I have already said, of courts of
justice is and must necessarily consist in a search
for the underlying truth. In this great work in the
inexhaustible domain of a search for the truth the
retiring Chief Justice — it will be a long time, my
friends, before we cease to call him the Chief — was
especially successful. He has succeeded to a re
markable degree in discovering and pointing towards
the discovery of the truth however much it may
have been concealed by artifices or made obscure by
technicalities. In the future this work must go on
without his assistance. But this is no time for
regrets or misgivings. "Men may come and men
may go," but the work of the lawyers and of the
courts must go on forever, and we who are left to
do the work must unhesitatingly accept the respon
sibilities that are placed upon us. And certainly
the position of your distinguished guest is most
desirable ; no man can ask for more than that after a
lifetime largely devoted to the public service, full of
33

honors, he should retire into private life, as does
your guest, followed not only by the respect and
the esteem, but by the love and admiration as well,
of lawyer and layman alike.
Mr. President: the work of the members of the
Supreme Court of this state is continuous and
oftentimes laborious, but it has its compensations,
for which we are beholden to no legislature. The
nature of our work is, and must necessarily be, en
joyable for one who is at all adapted to the position.
But, sir, more than all else, I think is the friendly
relations which exist between Bench and Bar. We
judges are sometimes impatient, and show it, but so
far as my experience goes, extending now over a
period of almost seven years, I never yet have seen
a member of the Bar either by act or word show
his impatience with the Court. The results of our
decisions are often criticised, especially by those
against whom the decision may have been rendered;
but I am satisfied that the members of the Bar
believe that the Judges are trying to do their very
best and that at all times they are absolutely un
biased and uninterested and are actuated only by the
desire to ascertain the truth and declare it. And I
hope further, Mr. President, it can be said that in
the performance of our duties we are absolutely
fearless of adverse criticism so long as we think
that we are in the right. 34

Other members of the Court are to speak and
there are still others here that you are desirous of
listening to, so that I will not further occupy your
time. In closing, Mr. President, I only desire to
express my sincere thanks to the Penobscot Bar and
its Committee for the opportunity of being present
upon this occasion ; and also to express the regret,
which I am sure is shared by all, that one member
of your Committee, who had taken special interest
in this occasion ever since its inception, is unavoid
ably absent by reason of a most unfortunate accident.
We are not only sorry that he cannot be here upon
his account, but we also each of us personally feel
the loss of his presence.

35

Speech of Governor Powers.

1 REGARD myself as fortunate to be among those
privileged to meet and greet Chief Justice Peters
here tonight ; and doubly fortunate in this, that it
falls to my lot to voice not only my own feelings
and sentiments but those of the State in tendering
to him here and now thanks and congratulations for
his eminent services and faithful work during a
long, useful and distinguished public career. I do
not use the prefix Ex, for I believe on an occasion
of this kind once a Chief Justice always a Chief
Justice. It is not my purpose to sound his praises, enum
erate his many virtues or discuss his legal learning.
His legal learning can be read in the Reports of our
Court. It will remain there during all coming
time. It is safe, secure, profound. But the friend
ly offices and courtesies which as a Judge he has
ever shown to us all, and which have endeared him
to every Bar, are not so conspicuous.
I have known him for many years. Our relations
have been somewhat intimate; always pleasant.
They began when he was a candidate for Congress
36

from this District. In whatever paths his life and
duty have called him, his ability and integrity have
placed him conspicuously in the front rank of
Maine's distinguished sons and written his name
high upon her roll of honor.
As an advocate at the Bar, as a member of the
National House of Representatives, as an Associate
Justice and for many years as Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court, to which I had the honor of re
appointing him, he has made a record which few
have equalled, none excelled. As has been said, it
is the common lot of man to be born, to struggle
through life's journey, to die and be forgotten and
the places which knew him once know him no more
forever. Yet, there are some men who belong to ' 'the few,
the immortal few, that were not born to die. ' '
When the people eighty years ago, "to establish
justice, insure tranquility, to provide for their
mutual defense, promote their common welfare and
secure the blessings of liberty for themselves and
posterity," framed and adopted our state Con
stitution, they expressly declared therein that the
powers of Government should be divided into three
departments : the Legislative, the Executive and the
Judicial. Provision was made for the election of
the lyCgislative and Executive branches by popular
vote. It was not deemed advisable to thus select
37

Judges of our Courts by the framers of the Consti
tution, and the duty of nominating and appointing
all Judicial officers was placed upon the Governor
with the consent and advice of the Executive
Council. This permits and empowers one branch of
our Government to create another and a co-ordinate
one, and to create one in many respects more power
ful and vastly more important to the welfare of the
people than itself. This appointing power, from
which such grave consequences may flow, should be
used with careful deliberation and a fixed purpose
to promote and maintain the high standing of the
Bench and the best interests of the State. For we
may boast, and rightly, that the common law, that
lasting monument of wisdom, justice and learning,
is the birthright of every American and we may, as
we do, guarantee by our Constitution and I^egisla-
tive enactments personal liberty and indi-vidual
security to all, under equal, just, and what we think
are wise, laws. Yet, unless these laws are inter
preted and administered by an able, independent
and incorruptible Judiciary they will come far short
of effecting the beneficent purposes for which they
are intended.
No State in the Union has been more fortunate in
the high standard of its Courts than our own. The
selection of Judges by Executive appointment I
think might be termed the earlier method as dis-
38

tinguished from the more modern one of electing
them by the people. Several states that formerly
appointed them have changed their constitutions
and adopted the elective system, and I think that
all the states that have been admitted into the
Union during the last quarter of a century choose
them by popular vote. Not every change is neces
sarily an improvement, and I am very decidedly of
the opinion that our method of selecting with the
seven years limitation is a better and a safer one.
Every consideration demands that the tribunal of
last resort shall be free from party responsibility,
political prejudice and bias. Under the elective
system judges must necessarily be, to some extent,
the creation of politicians and party conventions.
No Governor of any state ever has, and in my
judgment ever will, select men so utterly unfit as
some populistic conventions have nominated and
elected to high Judicial positions within the past
few years. Men who were not even lawyers ; men
without legal training and wholly guiltless of any
knowledge of law. I am a believer in the seven
years tenure rather than a life appointment as they
have in Massachusetts. This may not be quite as
satisfactory to the Judges who receive the appoint
ment, but I think it better for all concerned. Still
it should be a part of the contract or implied un
derstanding to be recognized and acted upon by the
39

appointing power, that any lawyer who abandons
his practice and accepts a place upon the Supreme
Bench, shall, unless some special reason prevents,
be reappointed at the expiration of his term, or
terms, until age unfits him to longer perform the
duties satisfactory to the Bar.
The Judges of our Supreme Court have always
been men of sound and varied learning ; men who
have great respect for precedents and well consider
ed decisions, yet they have not hesitated to brush
away the technicalities and cobwebs of the past
whenever the equities and justice of the case
demanded that they should do it, rather than by
attempting to establish a distinction without a
difference by some metaphysical subtilty ' 'that can
distinguish and divide a hair twixt North and
Northwest side. ' '
During my first term of office I appointed and
commissioned six of the eight judges of the
Supreme Court, including Chief Justice Peters. Of
the Court as now constituted seven have been
nominated by me. Since I have been Governor,
Peters, Walton and Foster have retired, and I have
substituted for them Savage, Fogler and Powers.
In making these selections and in the promotion of
Justice Wiswell to be Chief Justice, I have acted
very largely in obedience to the expressed wishes of
the lawyers of Maine. 40

The Boston Herald in its editorial columns, a
short time since, while commenting favorably upon
an appointment to the Bench by Governor Crane,
said that a Governor could be tested by his judicial
appointments. I am content to be judged by mine.
I have tried to make good ones. I believe I have.
This is emphatically the finest meeting of the
Maine Bar that ever assembled. It contains repre
sentative men from every County in our State. I
have a firm confidence that there is in store for
Maine a glorious future. There is no degeneracy
here. The people of Maine today are worthy descend
ants of those brave men, the early settlers who
subdued the forests and created the home and the
farm in the wilderness. Men whom no dangers
could daunt nor privations or hardships deter. Men
who knew their rights and dared maintain them.
Men who laid broad and deep the foundations of our
free institutions.
The past of Maine is safe, honorable and fur
nishes a noble incentive to all her sons and
daughters to make her future still more grand and
glorious. The people of Maine will ever be true to the
motto inscribed upon her banner "Dirigo."

41

Speech of Senator Hale.

Mr. Chairman and Toastmaster :
1HAVE come willingly from Washington to
attend this banquet given in honor of a most
distinguished fellow citizen, who has held for years
and now holds our highest respect and our
affectionate regard. I bring with me the regrets of
my colleague. Senator Frye, that he cannot be
present tonight.
It is well that the Bar of Maine is found here.
Before me is such an assemblage of Maine lawyers
as has never been seen before and will not in many
years be seen hereafter. The Bar of the State
represents the people of the State in this tribute to
the distinguished Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court of Maine who has lately retired from his
labors. In what I shall say, I will take as a kind of text
the allusion of Mr. Wilson, our Chairman and
Toastmaster, to the Upright Judge. Emerson
somewhere in his searching comment and analysis
42

upon the people of England says that "among their
most complete products are found the judges of the
highest courts." "Men," he says, "all of ripe ex
perience, enlarged views and that assured integrity
which it is good to meet with wherever we go. ' '
I suppose, Mr. Chairman, that all this is true.
There are no greater names in English history than
those of Coke and Hale and Somers and Eldon and
Mansfield and Cairns. Here in our own country,
where there is no aristocracy greater than that of
lawyers, we shall go far before we find the men to
whom the Republic owes more than it does to
Marshall and Taney and Story and McLean and
Curtis and Miller and Field, and, to use Emerson's
simile, Maine has no more " complete product" than
we find in Mellen, in Weston and Whitman and
Shepley and Tenney and Appleton and him whom
we honor tonight, Chief Justice Peters. I am sure
that in the fullness of time all that I say of these
great men will be said of the new head of the court,
Chief Justice Wiswell.
The "upright judge," Mr. Chairman, must be large
ly endowed by God and nature, but all his surround
ings will contribute to make him upright. The
atmosphere of the Bench makes for self-poise and
serenity. It has sometimes been the refuge of
great men who have been storm-tossed upon other
waters. 43

If I were to draw a picture of the man whom
time will ripen nearest to perfection as a judge, I
should select one who has before mounting the
Bench lived a strenuous life upon seas more turbu
lent than courts sail upon ; I should take the busy,
successful lawyer, whose clients have learned to
trust him, whose neighbors have learned to seek
him in trouble and in danger, in whose triumphs at
the Bar his community and his State have learned
to rejoice ; who is potent with juries and influential
with judges, who is at the Bar, what I might call
the great practitioner. I should give him legisla
tive service, the knowledge there gained of the
way statutes are drawn and enacted, and the ex
perience that is acquired by association with the
law-making department of the govermennt. I
should like this character which I am trying, in a
poor fashion to draw, to be a good business man,
capable of dealing with affairs, safe to be trusted
with moneys, not penurious and grasping, but frugal
and thrifty. Such an one as this I should place in
the prime of his manhood in his seat upon the
Bench, and then I should watch him as the years
go by to see the expanding of his experience, his
knowledge, his judgment, his power. I should
look with pleasure to see him with the rolling years
becoming more assured of his authority and yet
always using that authority with consideration and
44

gentleness. I should behold with gratification the
widening of this upright judge's moral nature. I
should see him becoming tender and thoughtful of
the rights of all suitors, and while I should expect
to find him after long years of judicial service not
needing to learn much more law, yet always striving
to learn the beauties and graces of kindliness and
patience and the spreading of the mantle of
charity far and wide. I should look to see him
learn to love equity rather more than law, and
justice tempered by mercy rather more than either,
so that at last this upright judge would stand with
me as the old figure of Justice, holding even scales.
As this great judge grows older, as his day de
clines, as the shadows lengthen, he learns that the
distance between the judge and the world of man
and woman is not so great as the martinets of law
have held it to be. He can never be approached by
outside influences bearing upon any case before him,
but people will go to him in their distress. The
young lawyer will learn to love him because of the
hints and the help that are given to him to make
his way easy. The poor and the oppressed will
seek his chamber for counsel and support. Woman
will go to him in her sorrow, it may be in her piti
able fall, and he is none the less the great judge
because he has words of sympathy and kindly
valuable counsel for her. As his service draws to a

45

close, this good judge becomes not only an authority
in other States and in other lands besides his own
State, but he is looked up to and respected and
revered by all of those who see his incomings apd
outgoings. I am rather enamored Mr. Chairman, as I speak
of this character of the upright judge, imperfectly
as I have drawn it. I do not think many here will
doubt whom I have in mind in this delineation, but
incomplete as it is, it is worthy, young gentlemen
of the Penobscot Bar, your attention, and such a
character as I have tried to portray is worthy of
your imitation.
It would be well for the young Bar of this county
and of all counties if its members set as the goal of
their ambition to become a judge of our highest
court. I know that I have felt this and had this
ambition when I was a busy young lawyer. Judge
Peters may remember one summer morning, soon
after his accession to the Bench, when a few of us
retired to the office of William Hilliard, a place
that we used to frequent for sober counsel and wise
admonition, how that Jonas Cutting, one of the
great, legal luminaries in Maine, said turning to
me : "I must hold out my full term, and Hale must
be my successor. ' ' I had no other ambition then,
and it was quite likely better than any ambition
that I have had since. My bark got fioated on
46

more troubled waters, and my part in the Supreme
Court in Maine has been to take pride in its decis
ions, and a pleasure above most things in my life is
the personal associations that I have had with its
Judges. I hope I may say that every member of
our greatest court is a personal friend of mine;
some of them are very dear to me. And now I feel,
as the hour is late, that I should take no more of
your time.
I have no elaborate or finespun or epigrammatic
characterization of Judge Peters to give. We all
know his great, fine qualities of body, mind and
heart. A quaint old English divine has this to say of
human life : ' 'The body is the fertile earth that
lies below all ; the mind is all that is reared or pro
duced from that earth ; the busy town, the army
and the fleet, the marble shaft, painting, sculpture,
poetry — whatever man creates — this is the monu
ment to the mind. The generous heart is the
heaven beyond all, the blue vault that bends above
and blesses all." Happy is the man that hath all
of these, and I think that of such, Mr. Chairman,
is John A. Peters.
Old companion, old friend, old Chief, we count
upon you and we expect you to be with us for
many days to come ! Not for years shall vanish
47

from the sight of men that ' 'good white head which
all men love to know. ' ' Never while we live will
disappear the honor, the regard, the affection
which all of us have for you.

48

Speech of Mr. Justice Whitehouse.

Mr. President and Gentlemen:
1MUST be excused for saying that the golden age
in the development of our law has been the
period comprised by the terms of service of John A.
Peters and John Appleton as chief justices.
On the retirement of Chief Justice Appleton, a
representative gathering like this paid their tribute
of respect to his life-long fidelity to the legal pro
fession, to his great learning and progressive views
as a jurist, his quickness of apprehension, tireless
industry and distinguished success as a judge on the
bench. We are here, to-night, to do honor to Chief Justice
Peters on the occasion of his retirement. It was
earnestly hoped that his health and strength might
justify a postponement of the unwelcome event.
The final announcement of it was received by the
bar and the people of the state with feelings of
sincere and profound regret ; but to his associates
who have so long been permitted to draw from the
rich store-house of his learning and experience, and
49

to have their counsel illumined by his practical
wisdom and intuitive sense of justice, who have so
uniformly been the recipients of his courtesy, kind
ness, patience and forbearance — and of that consid
eration which ever regards the sensibilities of
others — to them the announcement came, not only
with a sense of public misfortune, but with a deep
sense of personal bereavement. If, in the entire
history of our state, the laws have been administer
ed more ably, faithfully or acceptably, or with a
more genuine appreciation of the true dignity of
courts, the majesty of the law and the sanctity of
justice than by the court of which he was a mem
ber and over which he presided as Chief Justice, it
has not been by reason of any deficiencies of his ;
for among all the great and good men, who preced
ed him in that office, no one has contributed more to
mould the jurisprudence of the state into beneficent
and enduring forms than John A. Peters.
He retires in the fullness of labor and of fame ;
and no more heartfelt wish was ever uttered than
that his remaining years may be many, that they
may be filled with "all blessed conditions," and be
cheered by the pleasant memories of an official life
unsurpassed by any in New England history for its
stainless record of usefulness and honor.
It is said that lyord Brougham had an ambition to
excel in all things and aspired to universal fame.
50

With reference to the great diversity of his gifts
and the extent of his aspirations, Rogers once said
of him as he drove off alone in a carriage: "There
go Solon, Lycurgus, Demosthenes, Archimedes,
Sir Isaac Newton, I,ord Chesterfield and a great
m.any others, all in one post-chaise."
Judge Peters never aspired to be a universal
genius, and the constancy of his devotion to the
science and practice of the law is itself a disavowal
of such a claim. But, as I have seen him walk
along the street to his daily attendance upon the
law courts, I have thought: "There go John
Marshall, Daniel Webster, Abraham Lincoln, Ralph
Waldo Emerson and Henry W. Longfellow, and a
great many more, all under one modest straw hat ! "
It is not fitting here to indulge in fulsome eulogy of
one who "hath borne his faculties so meek. " He
may not possess all of the great talents and
gifts of the representative men I have named, or all
in the same degree. But, you will not deny him the
sturdy justice, the vigorous, original reasoning and
comprehensive view of a great jurist. You will not
deny him a firm grasp of the principles of constitu
tional law that underlie the fabric of every free and
balanced government; and when aroused by just in
dignation at falsehood and fraud, who will deny
him the emotional earnestness and vehement elo
quence of a great orator ? 61

You will not deny him the robust common sense,
the intuitive knowledge of men, the broad charity
and humanity and the perennial fountain of wit and
humor characteristic of the great friend of the
people. You will not deny him some of the independent
thinking and philosophical inquiry of the Concord
sage whose epigrammatic wisdom he often quotes.
He may smile when I declare that I, also, saw a
poet under that modest hat. True, he never had
the habit, like Silas Wegg and Baron Alderson, of
frequently "dropping into poetry." He was not
given to versification. He has never published his
volume of poems, even for private distribution
among his friends. His hymns have never been
sung in church. But you who heard his picturesque
and allegorical description of the "Penobscot Oak,"
know that he has the exuberant fancy to create
pleasing images as bright as new coins fresh from
the mint ; that he always had the power of awaken
ing pleasurable emotions at will, and of presenting
all the elements of poetry in such lights and combi
nations, as to fill the social world around him with a
pervading sense of truth and goodness and beauty
and gladness and joy.
But, if you seek an enduring monument to his
sound learning in the law and his luminous exposi
tion of it in the administration of justice, look
52

around among the thirty-three volumes of Maine
Reports, from the 6ist to the 94th, from the year
1873 to the year 1900. When Baron Pollock re
fused a judgeship, he said he deemed the functions
of an advocate more agreeable and more honorable
than those of a magistrate. There are, however,
some possible compensations. The triumphs of the
popular orator, and sometimes of the advocate at
the bar, soon become a fleeting memory and tradi
tion and often pass with the generation that witness
ed them. But there is immortality in a good book.
So in these published opinions of Judge Peters will
be found an imperishable record of the products of
a masterful mind, and the unmistakable marks of a
notable personality in style and thought.
It was once said of the Barons of the English
Exchequer: "Parke settles the law, Rolfe settles
the fact, Alderson settles the bar, Piatt settles
nothing, and Pollock unsettles everything. ' '
It is manifest from an inspection of our reports
that Judge Peters has been equally expert and effect
ive in settling the law and the fact, and you know
he has been phenomenally successful in settling the
bar; he was never accused of settling nothing, and
if he ever unsettled anything, it was to erect some
thing broader and better and more beneficent in its
stead. These opinions disclose all due consideration for
53

the wisdom and thoughtfulness of the ancient sages
of the law, but no superstitious reverence for the
arbitrary, legal dogmas of mediaeval times, or for
the sanctity of the common law in the days of
Coke and Bacon, when justice was bought and sold,
and helpless prisoners in the criminal courts were
brow-beaten to a cruel death. If at any time his
conclusions are in harmony with the reasoning of
Coke or a maxim of Bacon, it is not because it was
the law of Coke or Bacon, but because the reasons
for it commended themselves to his judgment as
still applicable to the conditions of modern life.
These opinions recognize what the profession of
each new generation must more and more observe,
and that is the distinction between reason and
authority ; that while cases decided under conditions
like our own have a value in the practical adminis-.
tration of justice which should not be underes
timated, representing as they do the principles of
law applied to actual life, it must never be forgotten
that behind and underneath all decisions, deeper and
more real than all authority, are to be found the true
sources of the law in the enlightened reason, the
natural justice and the moral sense of mankind.
Historically our law draws its life from sources that
are remote, varied and complex. It has a composite
character. The mother of the common law had a
marvelous career. A hundred generations looked
54

down upon her among the different peoples of the
earth, sometimes as a doorkeeper in the house of
the lyord, and sometimes a dweller in the tents of
wickedness. Yet her offspring reached a splendid
development, — a jealous mistress, indeed, but all
the more glorious because of her jealousy.
Many of these opinions by Judge Peters are strik
ing illustrations of the flexibility and creative power
of this law, and its adaptability, in the hands of a
master, to new enterprises, new developments and
new conditions in social life. Here we see how his
great intellectual gifts, his vigorous original reason
ing and the ripe fruits of his experience, are all
employed in the furtherance of justice. Here we
see how he would stalk across the many labyrinths
of confusing details in a voluminous record, and
take the main avenue to the "very truth and right
of the question." As a beam of light comes
through a crystal prism broken into its component
colors, every subject seemed to emerge from this
judicial mind in full analysis with all its component
parts clearly distinguished. Here we see, running
like a golden thread through all his work, a deter
mination to do what was right wherever the right
could possibly be discovered.
He seemed never to have forgotten that a wise
administration of the laws is the highest concern of
man on earth, and that there is "nothing in public
55

affairs so venerable as the voice of justice speaking
through her delegated ministers," — reaching and
controlling as it does the high and the low, the rich
and the poor, the strong and the weak, in all the
relations of life. Thus the mandates which heralded
these opinions have always come like the response
from a sacred shrine, and been received as the voice
of that justice whose fixed and constant purpose it
is to give every man his due ; and between the
great moral and physical agencies which, in the
progress of life seem to be ever struggling against
each other for the mastery, these opinions will
always be found on the side of truth, charity and
humanity, and the general welfare and progress of
society. Mr. President: The sculptor's "animated bust"
and the painter's speaking portrait of John A.
Peters will easily command a conspicuous place in
the gallery of Maine's distinguished lawyers, states
men, judges and jurists, and in all the galleries of
her "men of might and grand in soul;" but there
is no sculptor with hand so cunning, there is no
painter with brush so skillful, that he can ever do
justice to the image of John A. Peters that has
been impressed on the hearts of his friends, his
associates on the bench, and the bar and the people
of Maine.

56

This report of Mr. Justice Whitehouse' s speech
is but a reproduction of its leading features. There
were, besides, many happy thoughts, bon mots, and
sallies of witty sayings of his in response to the
applause and mirth-provoking calls of his audience,
accompanied by humorous anecdotes, which the re
porter declares himself unable to give. The reader
does not need to be assured that the interest and
merriment of the evening were not lessened in the
least by these interruptions, and in response to
which the speaker rose to the occasion as a born
raconteur.

57

Speech of Mr. Justice Haskell.

IT is joyous to me to see the young members of the
Bar come to express their respect and pay their
homage to the retiring Chief Justice, and to recog
nize the eminent service he has done during the
past twenty years ; a service that has been beneficial
not only to the bar, but to the state. And in order
that his service should be appreciated, it is well
enough to note the conditions under which this
service was performed. Our judiciary has existed
for eighty years. I,ook back over the bench
for these forty years, during the time of eminent
justices in the forties. Then we had a bench of
three justices who were but on equitable considera
tions. When we have lost John A. Peters from the
bench we have lost more than we know. He is the
last of the old bench and the best. He and his
associates were the best on the bench, and they
compared with any.
They have brought down to you, within the last
twenty years, a jurisprudence of which you may
well be proud. 68

Mr. Justice Haskell gave an interesting account
of the growth of equity-jurisprudence and practice
since he came upon the bench, and closed with a
heartfelt tribute to his friend and associate, the
honored guest of the occasion.

59

Speech of Hon. Joseph W. Symonds.

Mr. President and Brethren of the Bar :
I DESIRE, first of all to-night, to make my ack
nowledgments, and to express my feeling of
obligation, to the Penobscot Bar, for their courtesy
in inviting me to be present this evening, on this
occasion so full of interest in itself, so memorable in
its relation to the long and distinguished judicial
career which we meet especially to honor. Most
heartily I thank you for the honor and pleasure of
the evening to me, and for the generous kindness
with which you receive me.
'There is now and then a period in Hfe, when sud
denly we seem to have climbed a height upon the
way ; to have reached some eminence or vantage-
ground, with outlook both towards the past and
towards the future ; where we may turn to trace
again the pathway along which we have come, or,
with forward glance, may catch some glimpse of
what awaits us in the future. An occasion like this
to-night seems to be one which affords us this oppor
tunity, both for the retrospect and for the prospect.
60

Perhaps it is natural for us to turn rather more to
the past than to the future to-night, to dwell upon
memories even more than upon hopes or expecta
tions. At least I find my own mind fuller of mem
ories, and fonder of them, than of anticipations,
however bright they may be. The occasion, I need
not say, suggests many pleasant recollections to me.
In the first place, if I may be pardoned a personal
allusion, I have always been glad to remember that
your distinguished president was a classmate and
friend at Bowdoin of an older brother of mine,
whose early death left a dark trace in my own life ;
that Gen. Hamlin, also, whose absence to-night and
the sudden accident which has compelled it we so
deeply regret, was a college friend of my brother ;
so I learned to admire them both long before I had
ever seen or known them. This early association I
have always been glad to cherish. This occasion
not only renews the old association, but at the same
time reminds me of the pleasure of my own long
acquaintance with them.
But of the court. For when your committee
suggested to me to speak of the old and the new, I
suppose they meant the old and the new of the
court, of our court, of the Supreme Court of Maine.
The appointment of Judge Emery preceded by
only a few months my own resignation from the
bench, so that the expectation I had entertained of
61

calm judicial days with him, to supplement our early
college friendship, was never realized ; and with the
exception of Judge Emery, the retirement from the
bench of our learned and distinguished Chief Justice,
who is the guest of the evening, closes the chapter,
so far as the court of which I was a member is
concerned. No other associate of mine upon the
bench is now living. In little more than fifteen
years, the whole personnel of the court has
changed. The learned, brilliant and versatile Chief Justice
Appleton, of -wide and various attainments, profess
ionally and otherwise, of simple life but of courtly
manner, the model of all gentlemanliness, the ac
complished lawyer, the good judge, who presided
over the court during my time ; Judge Walton, on
whose noble face, calm in death, we have so recent
ly looked, the great common lawyer, the inflexible,
indomitable man, lifting readily and easily any legal
or judicial burden that time or place might lay upon
him, with some impatiences of temper which we did
not like but which we easily forgot when we saw
the new light, clear as the sun on Alpine height,
with which he flooded the cause. In his written
opinions, too, how remorselessly sometimes he drag
ged us to his conclusions, by a chain of reasoning in
which there were no links that would break. What
a beautiful English style he developed, the natural
62

expression of the crystal clearness of his mind !
What splendid service he rendered to the state,
during the longest judicial career in the history of
Maine, not only in the ordinary routine of the
courts, but in great crises, too ; and how little the
state did for him ! Think of Judge Walton as
counsel for large corporations, for great interests,
in our times. What wealth of knowledge,
what fertility of resource, what subtlety and
clearness of reasoning, what wise and just
estimate and forecast of chances and prob
abilities, he would have brought to their service.
The state did little for him. Every day upon the
bench was a sacrifice of his own personal interest.
But he did not complain, and his friends need not
complain for him. He towers, and will tower, so
long as our repotts remain, among the loftiest
judicial heights in all the range ; Judge Barrows
scholarly, strong and fine, of marked literary tastes
and gifts and attainments. If with him personal
feeling was sometimes in danger of ruffling the
surface of that calmness which judicial work re
quires, still the feeling was always sure to be in
favor of what he believed was just and true and
right; Judge Danforth, even-tempered and fair-
minded, of judicial temperament, winning the con
fidence of all by his moderation and impartiality ;
Judge Virgin, conservative, methodical, painstaking,
63

fond of precedents, elaborate in all the details of his
work ; and Judge Libbey, clear-sighted, firm and
positive, in whose mind the processes of reason and
judgment were as exact and definite as the move
ments of delicate machinery, his charges to the jury
models of concise and lucid statements. All these
have passed from among men ; but the results of
their fruitful labors remain, and the Bar keeps
bright their memories for what they were, and for
what they accomplished. I need not say to you
how universal was the respect which they won, nor
what deep traces they have left of their own individ
uality upon the jurisprudence of Maine. You know
all this quite as well as I. They were long the
associates upon the bench of our distinguished
Chief Justice, the honored guest of the evening,
and their names and faces re-appear, almost as of old,
when we meet to commemorate his great judicial
career. I count myself happy that at a somewhat
early age I had the advantage of this high com
panionship. But it is not with memories only, or exclusively,
that our minds are busy to-night. The future joins
hand with the past upon the narrow margin of the
present hour. The court as changed from my time
has already won its place in our affection and res
pect and new and endearing associations gather
about it every day. We have, too, a new Chief
64

Justice and a new Associate Justice, present with us
to-night, whom we would greet with all favoring
auguries upon the very threshold of their official
duties. May long life and distinguished usefulness
and honor await them. May they hold high the
old standards and advance them to meet the new
light and the new demands of the future. The best
wishes of the Bar and the community accompany
them as they enter upon their new terms of office.
I am more and more impressed with the import
ance of our highest courts of justice, and with the
value of the labors of our judges, as among the
deepest and strongest conservative forces in our
society. In this vast free country of ours, with the
fierce tides setting in the wide ocean of our democ
racy, where the tendency is to license rather than
to restraint, where the danger is that liberty may
be loosed too far from the law, the happiness and
safety of the people are largely involved in their
respect for the laws of the land and in their obedi
ence to them. To advise them of this is to counsel
them in the things which make for their peace.
According to its own maxim, the safety of the peo
ple is in the last resort the highest law, so the law
itself is the supreme guide and safety of a free
people. The love of liberty regulated by law and a
general and habitual regard and reverence for the
constitution and the laws are doubtless the only ties

65

which can permanently bind together this vast re
public. Our highest courts are places where all
that is valuable to the citizen, the lowest or the
loftiest, may at any moment be at stake. They
should be places of ceremony, formality and dignity.
Substance should not be sacrificed to form; there
should be a simplicity and directness suited to the
magistracy of a republic, but whatever tends to de
grade them to the level of the common-place should
be studiously avoided. It should be remembered
that the public, and perhaps all of us, are more or
less servile to external impressions, and a return to
the life tenure for our judges (from which in point
of practice fortunately in this state we have hardly
departed) and to something of the courtly ceremony
which in olden times prevailed in New England
would, I believe, be to the advantage of the profess
ion, the court and the public. It is undoubtedly
true that from the organization of the state to the
present time, the rule has been that its judges have
had in the highest degree the public confidence.
May the day never come when the respect of the
people is wanting to the laws of our country or to
the tribunals which administer them.
In a just sense, it is not for us to honor the dis
tinguished guest of the Bar to-night. It is he him
self who has erected the monument more enduring
than bronze, who has made his own life illustrious
66

and crowned it with honor. After the day's work
done, after a life rich and eminent in all judicial
achievement, may new fields of calm, congenial in
tellectual effort open for him, may the evening
shadows fall slowly, gently as the summer twilight,
and may "that which," Shakespeare says, "should
accompany old age, as honor, love, obedience, troops
of friends," and all serenity, attend him, until the
stars appear.

67

Speech of Hon. Orville Dewey Baker.

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Bench
and Bar :
IT is an honor of which I am deeply sensible, and
of which any lawyer may weU be proud, to be
asked, on an occasion like this, to represent the Bar
of Maine.
Among the distinguished members of that Bar
whose friendly faces I see around me — all worthy
successors to the famous Maine Bar of elder days —
I see a wealth of material for more fitting repre
sentation. After some reflection, I determined that my
selection must be due to a fine sense of contrast on
the part of our generous hosts. Since every other
speaker has been either a judge, or at smallest, an
ex-judge, they determined to emphasize still more
sharply the impassable barriers between Bench and
Bar, by selecting to represent the latter, one who
not only never has been a judge, but never could be
one. For candor compels me to go further and
confess, in all humility, that I am one of the lessen-
68

ing number of lawyers now remaining in the state
who have not even refused a judgeship. Even
when my friend, Gov. Powers, some years ago, in
the paucity of applicants, conceived the idea of
issuing a general search-warrant for judicial candi
dates, my office was not molested although it was
carefully kept open, and I could from my window
easily hear the officers of the law as they beat on
the closed doors of my neighbors. The Bar being
thus divided, in this state, into two great classes,
those who have been offered a judgeship but can't
afford it, and those who can afford it but have not
been offered it, I have been chosen to represent the
latter large, but, as I claim, still respectable class.
The State is fortunate, indeed, while she offers
such stinted compensation, in having found eight
gentlemen in the foremost ranks of the profession,
whom a grave sense of public duty and the over
shadowing honor of the place have moved to assume
the office, however costly the sacrifice. Having
once got them, we will hold them fast by our affec
tion and respect, and may the day be far distant
when we shall be called to banquet any retiring
member, especially a Chief Justice.
The Bar of Maine has indeed been graced by a
long line of famous names, men deeply nourished
with learning, cogent reasoners, acute examiners,
powerful advocates, mighty in their grasp of legal
69

principles. She has had her Shepleys, her Mellen,
her Weston, her Libbey, her Walton on the Bench ;
her Fessenden, her Evans, her Morrill and her ven
erable Ex-Senator Bradbury at the Bar, and,
crowding close upon them, other and later names
whose fame and power are fresher on our tongues.
But it is pre-eminently fitting that the honor we
would pay tonight to Maine's great Chief Justice
should be paid in this county of Penobscot, and in
this city of Bangor, where the glory of the Maine
Bar has so often centered, and where the shades of
the great past, predecessors and contemporaries of
our beloved guest, crowd so thickly on us.
We are tonight almost within ear-shot of that old
Court House, not much changed from its ancient
aspect, where Knowles was wont to set himself for
¦ trial in his formidable battle-order, where Jonas
Cutting flashed the keen blades of the common law,
where Kent, more rarely, but never vainly, shook
free his great powers, lion-like, where Appleton
laid the foundation of his fame, where McCril-
lis, strong and resourceful, overbore his opponents,
and where now a younger generation worthily sus
tains the best traditions of the elders.
Rufus Dwinel used to say that he had given their
first brief to the three greatest lawyers that Maine
had produced, Jonathan P. Rogers, Geo. F. Shepley
and John A. Peters. 70

Of Jonathan P. Rogers, who was my uncle, I
cannot either fittingly or knowingly speak, because
it has been my supreme regret that he died about
my birth- time, but the traditions of the Penobscot
Bar present him as a legal giant. Of noble and
dignified bearing and distinguished personal pres
ence, a close and cogent reasoner, a lucid expresser,
with a singular legal insight and a mastery of legal
principle — he was a friend to be loved, and an
antagonist to be feared. After practising some
years in Bangor as the partner of Judge Kent, he
went to Boston at the personal solicitation of
Webster, and died in comparative youth in the
midst of a growing fame.
Judge Shepley, too, the second member of the
great triumvirate, is gone, but the third and the
youngest we hail tonight as our beloved Chief Jus
tice, enshrining him in our affection and esteem.
Following this brilliant company of speakers,
most of whom are Judges or Ex-Judges, certainly
Governors, or at the very least, Senators of the
United States, it will not be expected that an un
distinguished member even of a distinguished Bar,
should do more than voice the unspoken acclaim
with which the whole Bar of the State hail the rare
service and yet rarer personality of John A. Peters.
I remember well when all the leading clergymen
of this region, where they knew him best, were
71

circulating petitions for his confirmation as Judge,
partly because, in a general way, they thought he
was up to the place, but especially because of his
consistent temperance principles ; and I remember
also, how, a few years later, when I had entertained
a party of friends at the Bucksport Inn with the
landlord's best, mine host, of the old-school blue
coat and brass buttons, refused to take pay either
for his lodgings or his cheer, because he said Judge
Peters had been the last to sample both, and he
understood I was a friend of Judge Peters. Yet
both the clergymen and mine host acted with a full
knowledge of the facts — for Judge Peters never did
anything behind a door^and neither was far astray
in his judgment of the man ; for while mine host
knew that he was catholic by nature, and tolerant
of all pleasures that wrought no harm to others, the
good clergymen knew also that John A. Peters,
even when he had just drained a glass to humanity,
was a better friend to temperance and order than
many a sorry anchorite who flagellates his -flesh
with the thongs of total abstinence. He could, and
did, dare many things, yet the great heart of the
people trusted him, because they knew instinctively
that while humanity coursed through him in rich,
full tide, yet back of it all was an utter stainlessness
of spirit. No one could come in contact with him
72

without a deep consciousness that, while his rare
personality gave him his infinite charm, it was the
tremendous moral force of the man which was the
true seat of his power.
Have you never studied the different trees in the
forest, the twisted oak, the light and bending birch,
the tall, straight pine, till — through some chance
opening onto the intervale — your eye came to rest
at last on the elm — the Chief Justice of the trees,
from whose pendant arches you catch the ideal of
grace, yet to whose sheltering strength men fiee
instinctively in storm ?
So he stands today, and will stand, our Chief
Justice, THE Chief Justice, brim-full of matter and
of meat, terse and luminous in expression, the
master of language, never its slave — the Lord
Mansfield of his age — one of those rare, imperial
spirits, whose prerogative it is to declare not so
much what the law had been, as what it had just
become through his creative act, and what it should
remain thereafter.
Warm in his friendships, kindly and delightful in
all his intercourse with the Bar or outside of it, no
man ever dared in court in the morning to presume
on his friendship with John A. Peters over-night.
Gentle in all he did, yet when roused by injustice,
he could launch the thunderbolt at will. As I close,
one scene stands boldly out against the background
73

of memory. It was in the old Court House here in
Bangor, and at the close of a great trial, where
murder was being charged and denied. The coun
sel for the prisoners and the State had ended, and
the dense throng hung on the lips of the Chief
Justice, as he read from notes, as was his wont, a
masterly analysis of the contentions for and against
the prisoners. Suddenly, as he was about to close,
he threw down his notes with a quick, impatient
gesture, and summoning all the immense moral
resources of his nature, he flung the whole into one
tremendous sentence, so that strong men shivered,
as when, in the sur-charged night, the whole sky
rends at once with one awful flash and bolt — I hear
that sentence now, ringing in my ears as if it were
but yesterday — "If these men are innocent, declare
it, for they are entitled to go free ; but if they are
guilty, the very earth on which we stand calls loud
ly for their conviction. ' '
We shall turn to him still, in the calm evening of
his days, for guidance and counsel. It is against the
sunset sky that the mountain ranges of high thought
and purpose stand clearest out.
"For Age is opportunity, no less
Ttan Youtli itself, though in another dress;
And as the evening twilight fades a-way.
The sky is filled -with stars, invisible by day."
I pledge you THE Chief Justice, whom the whole
State delighteth to honor. 74

Speech of Hon. John F. Lynch.

Mr. Chairman :
[CONFESS to some embarrassment in rising to
speak to an audience at three o'clock in the
morning, who have listened attentively for hours to
the most just and eloquent tributes ever paid to any
man in this state. My embarrassment is increased
by the fact that the nine speakers who have pre
ceded me are all men of rare ability.
If the speeches made had related to any other
subject than the venerable ex-Chief Justice of
Maine, there would be nothing left for me to say.
But happily, Judge Peters as a subject is an inex
haustible theme, and as I never had before, and
never expect to have again, the privilege of speak
ing on an occasion like this, I feel inclined to inflict
a brief speech upon you, although under the circum
stances it seems cruel to do so.
There is material enough in the life of Judge
Peters for a long history and several novels, and no
amount of talk can entirely exhaust the subject.
He is one of the most lovable and remarkable men
that Maine has ever produced ; the finest combina
tion of head and heart the people of this state have
ever known. Maine has produced other men of
great ability, but I cannot call to mind one in whom
75

was combined such lovable qualities with great in
tellectual strength. We can all call to mind men of
great ability and great deeds, but each were lacking
in some of the fine qualities possessed by our ex-
Chief Justice.
Napoleon was an intellectual giant — but Emerson
says he was a boundless liar. Judge Peters is par
ticularly noted for lo-ving the truth. George
Washington is called the Father of his Country,
and all Americans have been taught to think and
speak of him as the greatest of men, — and yet, no
one ever dared to call him George, or slap him on
the back. During all the time Judge Peters held
the highest judicial position in the state any friend
was at liberty to call him John, and if slapping him
on the shoulder would get a hearty slap in return.
I once heard Frank Bird say that the only thing
he claimed any credit for in life was what he had
done for good fellowship. Judge Peters has done
more for good fellowship than any other man in
Maine. All through his life he has enjoyed mixing
with the people ; a man among men, friend among
friends, boy among boys.
At any time in his long career if questioned, like
Ben Adhem, he would have said "write me as one
who loves his fellow men , ' ' and at the same time
thousands who knew him best would each have said
' 'write me as one who loves Judge Peters. ' '
76

Here I am reminded that a man of such lovable
and admirable qualities can only be developed under
favorable circumstances. Goldsmith says: "It has
been remarked that almost every character which
has excited either attention or pity has owed part of
its success to merit and part to a happy concurrence
of circumstances in its favor. Had Caesar or Crom
well exchanged countries, the one might have been
a sergeant, and the other an exciseman." Judge
Peters' lot might have been cast in some place where
he could not have developed the splendid character
that we know. Had he commenced business as a
lawyer among narrow minded, selfish, jealous people,
he might have been obliged to conform to their
views and manners. ("I wouldn't have staid,
John, ' ' put in Judge Peters. ) A good man caught in
such a place sometimes finds it hard to break away ;
he has to get a living and must often sacrifice his
individuality to necessity. Under such circum
stances a man grows smaller instead of larger, and
we find him a shyster instead of a lawyer. Judge
Peters was so constituted that even the fear of
starvation could not have carried him to so low a
plane of practice, and so circumstanced his life
would have been a dismal failure. To become a
member of Congress and Chief Justice it was neces
sary for him to have political influence, and he
might have been so situated that in order to secure
77

it he would have been obliged to become the boss of
a political ring, and live a studied life, the meanest
kind of a life.
It would have been impossible for the Judge to
live in that way, for there has not been an ounce of
hypocrisy in him since he was born. But all this
was avoided by Judge Peters in the happy selection
of a home.
I believe that environment has much to do with
shaping a man's life, and making it either a success
or failure. "No influences can make a great man
out of a little one, as no art of the jeweler can turn
pewter into silver ; but if God has given to a man
the qualities which make success possible, such en
vironments and influences prepare him for any
vocation to which he may be called. ' ' These were
the words of Mr. Breckinridge of Kentucky in his
address on the life and character of Senator James
B. Beck, in the House of Representatives, Sept.
13th, 1890. He referred to the influence of a Ken
tucky neighborhood in fitting Mr. Beck for a
successful contest in life.
It seems to me they apply with equal force to the
influence of Bangor in fitting Judge Peters for the
life he has lived, and in making him the splendid
character that we find him. When quite young I
lived in this beautiful city a year or two, and it
seemed to me then that no place in the country could
78

surpass it much for a home. Many years have
passed away, and I am of the same opinion still.
Judge Peters in early life found here a community
into which it was delightful for a man to enter.
Even then it was a thrifty, stately city, charmingly
situated, with a stable population ; since that time
it has had a steady, healthy growth, made possible
by the strong, sturdy men who controlled its busi
ness affairs. Here Judge Peters came in contact
with broad-minded, large-hearted, cheerful men,
implacable in hatred of shams, false pretences, and
hypocrisy, — capable of perceiving real ability, ad
miration for true worth and manliness, and without
the trace of jealousy. They quickly saw in him
the qualities they required in a lawyer. He
never lacked desirable business, and soon became
the leader of the Penobscot Bar, A New York man
once said to me that he could always correctly judge
a man by the kind of a lawyer he employed. The
fact that most of the leading business men of Bangor
employed Judge Peters was as creditable to them as
it was to him, for it proves that they desired to have
their business done in an honorable manner; surely
they could not have expected any thing dishonor
able in him.
He not only had the favor and patronage of the
business men of this city, but he has had the full
appreciation of all classes of its citizens. For many
79

years he has been the pride of the people of Bangor.
They loved to honor him, and enjoyed his compan
ionship. What a delightful friend and companion
he has been ! His cheerfulness, his wit, and kind
ness of heart have endeared him to all who knew him.
"No truer, gentler, kindlier spirit was ever
housed in woman's breast." His has been a grand
life and he has found his greatest pleasure in rend
ering service to his fellows. I " have claimed that
environment has had much to do with making his
life successful. I also claim that his influence has
been helpful to the people of Bangor. De Tocque-
ville in his observations on American life declared
that "when the American people is intoxicated by
passion, or carried away by the impetuosity of its
ideas, it is checked and stopped by the almost in
visible influences of its legal counselors. ' '
For many years Judge Peters has been an anchor
here to check spurious reforms, and prevent the
kind of men from taking leading positions in public
affairs who are so successful in controling the mass
of the people in some other communities.
As a citizen, lawyer and Judge his example is
worthy of emulation, it gives hope and encourage
ment to every boy in the state.
I think it no more than just to say that he was a
model lawyer, and certainly no judge in our time in
this state, has adorned the bench as he has.

80

Speech of Hon. Enoch Foster.

AT the conclusion of Mr. Lynch's speech, the
last on the regular list, a loud roar of cries
arose instantly for "Foster! Foster!" The ex-
Associate Justice, sitting near the head of the table,
shook his head with a deprecating smile; but soon
he found it impossible to quiet the tumult of calls
and finally rose in his place and said that it was
utterly impossible, at this late hour, to interest the
company. "Go ahead!" they shouted. Then
Judge Foster, in order to restore quiet, began with
some incidents and stories of his judicial and legal
experiences, emphasized and illustrated with quaint
gestures and quizzical smiles, that provoked and
aroused gales of laughter and applause. Continu
ing, he indulged in many interesting reminiscences,
citing the fact that in fourteen years' association
with Chief Justice Peters on the bench, he had
always concurred in the Chief's opinions. Among
his other pleasing remarks, he referred to the able
and elaborate opinion of Chief Justice Peters in the
case of Woodman vs. Pitman, 79 Maine, 456.
81

This was a case relating to the right of harvesting
ice from our large rivers, compared with the con
flicting right of traveling upon such rivers during
the winter season. And in the course of his reason
ing in the case, the Chief Justice plainly shows that
the law is constantly subject to gradual growth and
development, and when, in the eyer changing con
ditions and relations of society new questions arise,
it has within itself elastic and creative force enough
to adapt itself to such questions.
This opinion attracted much attention and was
widely quoted. Speaking of it further, Judge
Foster said the Chief Justice clipped from the St.
Louis Law Journal an article praising it, and sent it
in a letter to him saying : ' 'Enoch, see what they
think of it out west, where they know something! "
It was evident that Judge Foster stands high in
the estimation of the Bar of Maine. At one place
in his address, the Chief Justice arose and grasped
his hand in acknowledgment of an honest compli
ment eloquently expressed.

82

LETTERS OF REGRET.

Letter from Chief Justice Fuller.

Washington, Jan. 22, 1900.
Dear Sirs :
I AM obliged to the Penobscot Bar for the invita
tion to attend the banquet to be given Chief
Justice Peters at the Bangor House, on the evening
of Thursday, February ist, and sincerely regret that
official duties will prevent me from being present.
His eminent judicial labors have made the Chief
Justice known to the Bench and the Bar of the
entire country, but I have enjoyed his personal ac
quaintance for nearly half a century, and nothing
would give me greater pleasure than to assist at any
function intended to do him honor.
I trust he may be spared for many years to de
light the wide circle of which he has been so long
the ornament. Very truly yours,
Melville W. Fuller.
Messrs. Wilson, Hamlin, Woodard and others,
Committee, etc.

85

Letter from Senator Fiye.

President Pro Tempore,
United States Senate, Jan. i8, 1900.
Mr. F. a. Wilson, of the Committee, etc :
T SINCEREI/Y wish that I could be present at
1 your banquet in honor of Judge Peters, and ex
press, so far as words could, the regret I, with all
members of the Bar in Maine, feel at his loss from
our bench, which he has adorned so many years.
He has been my ideal of a judge, learned in the law,
patient, genial, kindly and encouraging to the
younger members of the Bar, a gentleman always,
in court, and a delightful companion out. May the
remaining years of his life illustrate completely the
conception of Cicero's De Senectute.
Sincerely,
Wm. P. Fr-^.

86

Letter from Hon. Thomas B. Reed.

IO Wall Street, New York,
January 26, 1900.
Dear Mr. Hamlin :
I AM sorry indeed that I cannot be with you, but
I am going to be of you, if you will let this letter
come in somewhere in the proceedings.
You will all of you say good things of John, but
you will get awfully tired of language before you
have said half.
He has not only added to the gaiety of nations,
but to that of the stellar universe. He has been a
comfort to us all, young and old. He has been an
honest politician, who has told as much truth as
this sinful world would bear; a sound lawyer, whose
clients were always his friends; a just and upright
judge, whose judgments will stand.
Best of all he is alive, and need not wait to have
these things said until he can't hear them.
Honors and troops of friends I cannot wish him.
He has them all. May he live long enough to
87

hand down to a generation beyond ours the light of
other days. Posterity will then think well of us all
on his account.

Sincerely yours,

T. B. Reed.

Hon. Charles Hamlin.

88

Letter from Mr. Justice Putnam,
U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Portland, Me., Jan. 30, 1900.
Brother Hamlin:
CHIEF Justice Peters has laid to my charge
various matters, beginning with what, in mod
ern times, is held to be of little account, inconsisten
cy — see Walker vs. Thompson, 61 Me. 347,350 —
and ending with the heinous crime of vice versa, of
which he accused both Judge Strout and myself,
and the nature of which he will explain to you if
you do not already know it. Nevertheless, I have
long since forgiven him; and I regret very much
indeed that I cannot attend the banquet to him on
the evening of February ist, without adding to the
category of alleged offences, by violating a promise
entered into before I received the kind invitation of
your committee.
If I should undertake to go over all the pleasant
things which have come to me through my long
acquaintance with Chief Justice Peters, I fear you
89

would need to adjourn your banquet to some future
day in order to complete the reading of my letter.
Therefore, I 'will refer to only one matter, which
perhaps, would not otherwise be spoken of on
Thursday evening; that is, the very great gratifica
tion and the extreme sense of obligation which all
of us who are interested in Bowdoin College are
conscious of, as the result of the holding by Judge
Peters of his seat in the Board of Trustees of that
institution. No one who has lived the Bowdoin
life from boyhood could have been more earnest,
and shown more esprit in that position, than he has.
Not only has he attended to the minutest details
with extreme fidelity, but he has always shown,
what you all know he possesses, a tender touch and
great breadth and foresight in combining the various
interests of the College with reference to matters of
the highest import. In this, as you know, he has
only exhibited the same characteristics which he has
exhibited everywhere; but, with all the other mat
ters which will be passed to his credit next Thurs
day, this ought not to be overlooked.
Of course, a letter Uke this would not be in due
form 'without a toast; but what toast can be given
by the absent ? I can think of none more appropri
ate than what was said at a considerable dinner at
Washington some years ago. I happened at that
time to allude to your guest, when Mr. Bayard,
90

than whom no man was ever more delighted with
wholesome fountains of perpetual sparkle, with a
gesture, exclaimed : "John Peters ! how I wish he
were here this minute ! ' '
I trust that the wholesome smell of your viands
will reach all nostrils, and that the good things
which will be said at your banquet board will reach
all ears, so that both the young and the old every
where will be attracted to listen, and will be aided
to learn the great worth to the community of a faith
ful judge, who not only never decided improperly
for a friend, which is easy, but who is also so touch
ed with the genius of the impersonal judicial spirit
as, also, never to decide against a friend unless his
cause deserved it. Very truly yours,
William 1,. Putnam.

91

Letter from Mr. Justice Emery,
Senior Associate Justice.

Ellsworth, Jan. 20, 1900.
My Dear Mr. Wilson :
PI/EASE express to the Penobscot Bar my thanks
for the kind invitation to the banquet to be given
Hon. John A. Peters, who after many years of honor
able service as a public servant has now retired from
that service to the honorable station of one of the
American sovereigns. I much regret that previous
arrangements for a vacation trip to the Mediterra
nean for Mrs. Emery and myself will deprive me of
the pleasure so kindly tendered. Even as you are
all enjoying the banquet and the wit and wisdom of
the occasion, I shall be tossing uneasily on the tem
pestuous North Atlantic, and not enjoying anything
much. Of the many good and true things that may be
said of the guest of honor, I will suggest but one.
In his long service as Chief of the Court he has
never made even the sharpest dissent from his opin
ion in the slightest degree personally unpleasant to
92

the dissenter. Of clear and strong convictions him
self, when the cause had been fully heard and con
sidered and he had come to a conclusion, he was yet
completely tolerant of the contrary opinions of his
associates, if any. He never showed, and I believe
never felt, any personal offence or even annoyance,
if his views did not prevail, however much he may
have grieved for the State and the parties. He in
culcated hospitality for the thoughts of others, and
thus made the consultation room the hospitable
home of free thought and free expression, and of
honest desire to find out and declare the very truth
of the matter.
To him, to his successor and to you all, I send
hearty greetings and good wishes.
Sincerely yours,
IvUCiLius A. Emery.
Hon. Franklin A. Wilson and the Gentlemen of
the Committee.

93

Letter from Mr. Justice Strout.

Saco, Jan. 29, 1900.
Hon. F. A. Wilson and others of the Committee.
Gentlemen :
1HAVE delayed answering your invitation to the
banquet to Chief Justice Peters, in the hope that
I might be able to attend. But I am here in the
midst of jury trials, and I see no prospect of getting
relieved before the very last of this week or the
early part of next.
It grieves me very much that I am unable to con
tribute, by my presence, my appreciation of Judge
Peters. While your Bar has had a longer acquaint
ance with him and larger opportunity to know the
man than I have, I yield to none of you in love and
esteem for him. I appreciate his great leaming and
ability, and his invaluable services to the State and
its jurisprudence, but I love him more for his integ
rity, his frankness, his freedom from cant and hy
pocrisy, and his genial nature.
Since I have been associated with him on the
94

Bench, this more intimate relation has increased my
regard. It is painful to lose him for Chief, but it is
gratifying to know that his mantle has fallen upon
a most worthy successor.
I hope the late Chief Justice may live many years
to enjoy a well earned rest, cheered by the regard
and affection of the Bar and people of Maine.
I am very truly yours,
S. C. Strout.

96

Letter from Mr. Justice Webb,
U. S. District Court.

Portland, Me., Jan. 30, 1900.
My Dear Peters :
IT will be of no use for me to attempt to describe
my regret that I must deny myself the pleasure
of taking part in the banquet complimentary to you
on Thursday evening.
I shall add my tribute and congratulations to
those of your other friends who will meet to express
their love and honor for you. Yours is a unique
experience of which you may well feel proud. So
far as I know, you are the first in the history of the
country, who has voluntarily retired from a place
high as that which you have surrendered, and that,
too, when no murmurs that you held on, were float
ing in the air.
I feel hopeful that a sense of freedom from burden
and responsibility will enhance the pleasure of your
days, and prolong them to the joy of your family
96

and friends. That it may be so, and that we may
meet as old men rejoicing in the retrospect of life,
finding satisfaction in our cheerfully and peacefully
awaiting the future, is the sincere wish of
Your earnest friend,
Nathan Webb.

97

Letter from Ex-Senator Bradbury.

Augusta, Me., Jan. 23, 1900.
Committee of the Penobscot Bar.
Gentlemen :
1 THANK you for your kind invitation. I am too
feeble to say more than that I wish many years
of restored health and happiness to Chief Justice
Peters upon his retirement from the high position
he has filled with honor. Yours respectfully,
James W. Bradbury.

98

Letter from W. H. Clifford, Esq.

Portland, Me., Jan. 30, 1900.
Hon. Franklin A. Wilson, Chairman of the Com
mittee of Arrangements, etc.
Dear Sir :
1HAVE the honor to acknowledge receipt of the
invitation transmitted by your committee of the
Penobscot Bar, to attend the banquet to be given
Chief Jilstice Peters, at the Bangor House, on
Thursday evening, February the first, and very
much regret that I am prevented from enjoying the
gratification of being present.
No Judge that has been seated on the bench
of Maine has higher claims upon the gratitude
of the State, for distinguished service, than
Judge Peters. The honor, respect and affection
of the entire Bar of Maine is one of the
appropriate rewards to a judge who for a long period
has contributed to cause the bench, over which he
presided, to be honored, and its decision respected,
both within its jurisdiction, and by the other judi
ciaries of the country. Very truly yours,
William Henry Clifford.

99

Letter from Albert Mathews, Esq.

New York City, (48 E. 26th St.)
January 23d, 1900.
Gentlemen :
1BEG to acknowledge the receipt of your kind
invitation to the banquet to be given by the
Penobscot Bar to my lifelong friend, Hon. John A.
Peters, Chief Justice of the State of Maine, at the
Bangor House, on Thursday evening, February ist,
1900. I thank you most sincerely for the honor and
favor you have conferred upon me by this welcome
invitation. Unfortunately for myself, the condition of my
health forbids my personal participation in the great
pleasure it must be, to any one who knows him, to
be present and join hands in doing honor to your
distinguished Chief.
That this compliment to Judge Peters will be
most worthily bestowed, his long, eminent and faith
ful service to the State, while in the Judiciary, as
well as in many other public offices of high rank
100

that he has filled from time to time with ability
and patriotism for so many years, to say nothing of
his prominence and esteem at your Bar, emphatical
ly attest.
All of this is too well known to you and your
fellow-citizens to be referred to here, except to give
me the opportunity to add that this fame, for abiUty,
uprightness, impartiality and fidelity to duty, is not
limited to his native State; but I have reason to be
lieve it is recognized by the Bench and Bar, as well
as by many others of his fellow-countrymen,
throughout the Union.
I have known Judge Peters, and am proud to
have been his cordial friend at all times, since we
were boys together, as classmates (1836-42) in Yale
College. This is not the time for me to give details
of personal reminiscence. Yet perhaps I may be
permitted to say that my esteem, friendship and
love for his character, qualities, personal traits and
conduct, as well as my class-pride in his honored
career, have steadily strengthened, and more and
more endeared him to me, with the passage of time.
Certainly he has earned fully the right to withdraw
from the severe labors of public life and has paid,
with compound interest, the debt we are accustom
ed to say every right-minded lawyer owes to his
profession. Involuntarily, the language of the heart, in deal-
101

ing with such a subject, runs, more or less, some
what into the familar groove of eulogy; yet when
a man is allowed to speak freely of a dear friend,
whose unbroken fellowship and sympathy he has
enjoyed for more than half a century, it would be
affectation uncalled for, if not ungenerous, to re
press the candid expression of his moral and intel
lectual convictions. May I ask leave, then, to join
heartily in your congratulatory recognition of the
ability, character and public services, as well as the
charming perspnal qualities of our distinguished
friend; and to add my feeble voice to the general
expression of hope that he may live long to honor
the profession we all hold in such esteem, to enlight
en you by his counsel and to be cherished by your
affection ? Cordially yours,
Albert Mathews.
To Hon. Franklin A. Wilson, Chairman of Com
mittee of Arrangements, etc.

102

Letter from Hon. G. B. Sawyer.

Wiscasset, Jan. 29, 1900.
Hon. F. A. Wilson and others of the Committee.
Gentlemen :
1HAVE to thank you for the honor of your kind
invitation in behalf of the Penobscot Bar to at
tend the banquet to be given to the retiring Chief
Justice, Hon. John A. Peters, at Bangor, on the
evening of February first.
I sincerely regret that circumstances and con
ditions, which are beyond my control, will render it
impossible for me to accept your kind invitation.
It will be a notable and memorable event, and
among the brilliant and brainy men of the Bench
and Bar of the State, my absence will not be serious
ly noted. I wish for you all — the entertainers and
the entertained — a most happy and enjoyable occa
sion, and for the retiring Chief long and happy
years of rest and comfort, undisturbed by official
cares. The word "Chief" has come to be an endearing
name, rathei: than a mere title. It belongs to him
103

alone, and we shall always call him by that name,
notwithstanding his voluntary retirement. No
other man can hope to attain and hold so loyaUy,
and so many years, the respect and affection of the
Bar and people of the State, as he has done.
Very respectfully yours,
Geo. B. Sawyer.

104

Letter from G. C. Yeaton, Esq.

South Berwick, Me., Jan. 27, 1900.
Hon. Franklin A. Wilson and others, Committee
of Arrangements.
Dear Sirs and Brothers :
IF I am not able to enjoy the personal presence of
so distinguished a company as will collect at the
Bangor House, Thursday evening, February ist,
when and where every one of whom I believe would
be persona grata to me, and to meet him in whose
honor the feast is to be served, and who, I know,
will as usual gladden every eye, and make more
than music to every ear, I certainly can tell you on
paper what I think.
There is, you know, a certain somewhat stale old
maxim, something like this— de mortuis nisi bonum,
and which some of our modern linguists seem prone
to translate by a species of transference into its con
verse (a little distorted perhaps) "Never praise a
man until he's dead." From that doctrine I stub
bornly dissent. If any good should ever be said of
a man, why not at once? Why carp at the living
and praise only the dead ?
105

The ethics of Douglass Jerrold's oft-quoted cyn
ical sentence ' 'because thou art virtuous thou shalt
have no more cakes nor ale" might not be extended
outside its immediate context.
He may stop his ears against this if he likes, but
all the same my pen shall not lag for that cause.
Thirty years and more of somewhat miscellaneous
practice in the Courts of Maine, has shown me no
figure more robust in all its contour; of very varied
learning, of sound and discriminating judgment, of
keen and incisive wit, of hard and unyielding sense
of justice, of quick and accurate perception, of ripe
judicial training, and of a temper which for its sun
ny sweetness was rarely if ever surpassed.
At Nisi Prius his patience was almost unlimited,
nor did he ever permit adroitness or cunning on the
part of counsel to defeat or obstruct the administra
tion of justice; although often in contact with the
inexpert and the ignorant, and at times made to
suffer keenly from the stupidity or senseless prolix
ity of some, the pitiful hair-splitting of some, and
the transparent trickery of others, he never permit
ted the first to confuse him, nor the last to obscure
the truth.
An untimely rebuke or a harsh word from the
Bench, while he sat there, no man ever heard. His
unfailing kindness toward young men, and indeed
106

many older ones, who lacked familiarity with estab
lished rules, was marked and will never be forgotten
by the happy beneficiaries.
At Law Term his queries or comments, not in
frequently injected, were never exasperating or con
fusing, but always genial and stimulating.
If any member of the Bar seemed to think it duty,
or from any other standpoint advisable, to attempt
to argue a manifestly absurd or ridiculous proposi
tion, his attitude even under this severe test was
one of dignified decorum, whatever storms threaten
ed his internal equilibrium.
Of his record of service, both at Nisi Prius and at
Law Term, viewed from any side, no saving adjec
tives need be employed, no paraphrases adopted.
It has been long, serene, sufficient; whatever for us
who linger the future may have in store, the past
can scarcely show us its peer.
To him may many years yet remain to enjoy so
well earned admiration of those who long have
known him, respected him, loved him.
Very sincerely yours,
G. C. Yeaton.

107

Letter from R. K. Sewall, Esq.

Wiscasset, January, 21st, 1900.
To the Penobscot Bar :
Gentlemen :
PLEASE accept my thanks for the courtesy of
an invitation to participate in the festivities
of your banquet, opening the twentieth century,
in honor of the Hon. John A. Peters, a tribute
of respect and affection to one of the most
eminent of our jurists, whose name, we believe, will
hold a notable place in the history of the adminis
tration of law and justice in New England, and not
alone for his ' 'acorn terms' ' at Lincoln Bar.
The "Penobscot Oak," as a symbol of the
strength and durability of the respect and affection
of the legal fraternities of Maine, is a contribution
of lyincoln to the future of the name and fame of
John A. Peters, whose personality is a contribution
to the eminence of Maine's jurisprudence from Pen
obscot. May his repose from official responsibilities be as
honorable, beneficent and ornamental to society and
108

our civilization as his past has been to the Bar of
Maine, with a certainty of like success when we all
shall meet in the better land at the Bar of the Judge
of the quick and the dead.
The season, my age and personal accidental dis
ability, now rapidly convalescent, forbid my presence
at Bangor on the occasion of your banquet.
With renewed thanks for your courtesy of an in
vitation and sympathy with its purposes and success,
I subscribe myself, Truly yours,
Rufus King Sewall.
To the Committee of Arrangements of Penobscot
Bar, Bangor, Me.

109

Letter from H. W. Swazey, Esq.

Portland, Me., Jan. 28, 1900.
General Charles Hamlin, and others, Members of
the Committee.
Dear General:
I THANK you for the invitation to be present at
the Banquet to be tendered Judge Peters, and
regret that I am ill at home and cannot attend.
Please extend to Judge Peters mj' most cordial
regards and esteem, and express to the other mem
bers of your Committee my great disappointment.
I have been reading Lord Campbell's tribute to
Lord Chief Justice Holt, and am impressed with its
fitness to characterize the judicial labors of Chief
Justice Peters, and as defining those qualities which
will place his recorded opinions among the noted
cases in our jurisprudence :
"Generally speaking he is to be considered a con
summate jurist; above all prejudice; misled by no
predilection; seeing what the law ought to be as well
as what it was supposed to be; giving precedent its
110

just weight and no more; able to adapt established
principles to the new exigencies of social life, and
making us prefer judge-made law to the crude en
actments of Legislatures. ' '
But none of the subjects of Lord Campbell's
memoirs is given the attributes that belong to the
personality of your distinguished guest. His love
for his fellow-men, his rare elements of personal
lovableness, his geniality and his benevolence, how
charming they all are !
To Judge Peters, it must be a grateful contempla
tion and sweet satisfaction to have so lived out and
rounded out his life as, upon the serenity of advanc
ing years, he comes to receive the unstinted homage
paid him in the admiration of his great talents and
the tender appreciation of his wonderful amiability.
Again regretting the misfortune that prevents my
being with you to share the pleasures and honors of
the occasion, I remain with esteem.
Very truly yours,
Henry W. Swazey.

Ill

Letter from Hon. G. F. Emery.

Portland, Jan. 22, 1900.
Hon. Franklin A. Wilson, and others. Committee.
Gentlemen :
[HIGHLY appreciate the honor of being invited
to participate in the Banquet to be tendered the
Honorable John A. Peters at the Bangor House, on
Feb. ist.
His career has been characterized by eminent
learning and ability, enriching our judicial annals
for all time, combined with the uniform exhibition
of personal qualities which have won for him high
respect from the Bar, and warm affection of those
who have known him best.
The occasion will be a most fitting and delightful
one. Sorry, I am, I cannot be -with you. But we
can all hope for him in his retirement from the pub
lic service a long, serene and happy respite from his
labors, accompanied by the consciousness of having
honorably and faithfully served his day and genera
tion in the highest position to which any man can
be called in this good old state of ours.
Sincerely yours,
George F. Emery.
112

Letter from Hon. G. F. Talbot.
Ex-U. S. District Attorney.

Portland, Jan. 29, 1900.
Hon. Franklin A. Wilson, and others, Committee
of Arrangements of the Penobscot Bar.
Gentlemen :
1 HIGHLY appreciate the honor you have done me
in inviting me to be present at the Banquet to be
given to Hon. John A. Peters, at the Bangor House,
on the first of February next.
It would give me much pleasure to meet the dis
tinguished guest, and the gentlemen who propose
this well-merited recognition of his public services;
though I should miss so many members of the Bar,
whose professional careers were contemporary with
my own. Prudence, however, suggests that the
exposure and fatigue of the necessary journey, at
this season of the year, may have hazards for me,
which I ought not to disregard.
Chief Justice Peters, by his assiduous devotion to
the duties of his high office, by his mastery of the
principles of jurisprudence, by his impartiality and
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integrity has more than met the expectations of his
friends and of the public in the eminent position, at
the head of the judiciary of the State, he has so long
held. By his talents and learning, by his probity
and incorruptibility, as well as bj'^ his winning and
amiable manners, he has contributed in no small
degree to create for our good State that moral and
intellectual prestige, so incommensurate with its
material prosperity, which it has long enjoyed in
the estimation of the country.
I am glad of the opportunity you have given me
to add my personal tribute to your general acclaim.
With high respect, truly yours,
George F. Talbot.

114

Loin De Bal.

To J. A. p.

If I only had the genius
Of a Kipling or a Holmes,
Or better still, of Holman F.,
That breezy boy who roaias
O'er the state of his nati-vity,
I/ike a bright, effulgent Day,
And rhymes up hot his locals
For the staid and sure L. J.,
I -would paint that evening's picture
In colors that -would last.
To tell my children's children
Of that glorious repast.
But of any such equipment
I surely cannot boast.
And so I'll not attempt it,
But offer one more toast.
'Tis -well to sing -with vigor
Of the "men behind the guns,"
'Tis -well to sing -with pathos
Of the "men behind the sons."
But I declare most boldly,
'Without giving truth a -wrench,
That the man -who holds the tiller
Is the "man behind the Bench."
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He is modest and he's quiet.
He is gentle and sedate.
But he's back of all the armies.
And he really rules the state.
Our property he cares for.
No tyrant need we fear.
Our life is in his keeping.
Our home and all that's dear.
So, here's to abstract justice.
As she stands with even scales;
And here's to concrete Justice
As he walks these earthly vales.
And last as well as best, boys.
And nearest to my heart.
Here's to the dear Chief Justice
'With whom we've had to part.
May his last years be his sweetest.
Each day a heaven-sent kiss.
And the next world treat him half as well
As he has treated this. L. C. CORKISH.

116

INDEX.

Baker, O. D., Speech,  68
Bradbury, J. W. , Letter,  98
Clifford, W. H., I^etter,  99
Cornish, 1/. C, Poem  115
Dinner and Guests,  5
Emery, Geo. F., lyctter,  112
Emery, Mr. Justice, I^etter  92
Foster, Enoch, Speech,  81
Frye, W. p., lyetter,  86
Fuller, Chief Justice U. S. S. C, Letter, . 85
Hale, U. S. Senator, Speech  42
Haskell, Mr. Justice, Speech  58
lyYNCH, J. F., Speech  75
Mathews, Albert, Letter,  100
Peters, Ex-Chief Justice, Speech, ... 16
Powers, Governor, Speech,  36
Preface,  3
Putnam, Mr. Justice, Letter,  89
Reed, Thomas B. , Letter,  87
Sawyer, G. B., Letter,  103
Sbwali,, R. K., Letter  : . . 108
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Strout, Mr. Justice, Letter,  94
Swazey, H. W., Letter,  no
Symonds, J. W., Speech,  60
Talbot, Geo. F., Letter,  113
Webb, Mr. Justice, Letter,  96
Whitehouse, Mr. Justice, Speech, ... 49
Wilson, F. A., Speech,  ri
WIS'WELI,, Chief Justice, Speech, ... 32
Yeaton, G. C, Letter,  105

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YALE UNIVERSITY

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