Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 February 1890 — THE SUPREME COURT. [ARTICLE]

THE SUPREME COURT.

CELEBRATION OF ITS CENTENNEAL ANNIVERSARY AT NEW YORK. Notab'e Addresses br Ex-President Cleveland,' Henry Hitchcock of St. Louis and Justice Field—Many Eminent Jurists Present. The exercises in commemoration of the 100th anniversary ot the establishment of the Supreme court of the United States were held at the Metropolitan opera house in New York. Ex-President Cleveland presided. -• The members of the Supreme court in their official fobes had seats of honor on the stage. The judges of the Federal district courts. State Court of Appeals, and the Supreme, Superior, Common Pleas and other courts, and prominent representatives of the bench and bar from all parts of the country were present. The program included an introductory address by Grover Cleveland; a welcoming address by Chairman Arnoux of the New York State Bar Association; addresses on “The Origin of the United States Supreme Court,” by William Allen Butler: “The Supreme Court and Constitution,” by Henry Hitchcock of Missouri; “The Personal Characters of the Chief Justices,” by Thomas J. Sennnes of Louisiana; “The Supreme Court and Sovereignty of the People,” by Edward J. Phelps of Vermont; and a response by the court through Justice Field Ex-President Cleveland, who presided, said: “We.have assembled to commemorate an event connected with our beginning as a people which more than any other event gave safety and promise of perpetuity to the American plan of gbvernment and which was happily illustrated by the wisdom and foresight of those who designed the National structure. The elements of free government were supplied by the concessions of sovereign States, by the surrender of accustomed rights, and by the inspiration of pure, disinterested patriotism: but with all these, if that feature in the federal system which secured our judi- | ciary had been left out, our grand political edifice would have possessed only a semblance of solidity and in its foundations there would have been the elements of infirmity and decay. “It is plain from the facts and review of the events in our history that without the arbiter to determine rights and duties under the constitution the union of States and the life of the nation must have been precarious. Our fathers sacrificed much to be free. Though bitter experience taught them that government might trespass upon freedom they refused to take counsel of undue fear, and established as a fundamental function of government a restraint upon unauthorized freedom and a check upon dangerous liberty in the form of a supreme judicial tribunal. “Let us ever cherish the rich possession of such a heritage.” Henry Hitchcock of St. Louis then delivered an address upon the exercise of the powers of the court since its organization. Mr. Hitchcock was followed by Thomas J Semmes of Louisiana. After Mr. Seinmes had concluded and Gounod’s “La Colombo” had been rendered by the orchestra, Hon. Edward J. Phelps, late minister to England, delivered an able address on “The Supreme Courtland the Sovereignty of the People.” Chief Justice Fuller then introduced Justice Field, who responded in behalf, of the Supreme court; Justice Field said: “In every age and with every people there have been celebrations for the triumphs in war—for battles won on land and sea—and for triumphs of peace, such as the opening of new avenues of commerce, the discovery of new fields of industry and prosperity, the construction of stately temples and monuments, or grand edifices for the arts and sciences and for the still nobler institutions of charity. “But never until now has there been in any country a celebration like this, to commemorate the establishment of a judicial tribunal as a co-ordinate and permanent branch of its government. This celebration had its inspiration in a profound reverence for the constitution of the United States as the sure and only means of preserving the Union with its inestimable blessings, and the conviction that this tribunal has materially contributed to its just appreciation and to a ready obedience to its authority.” The justice reviewed the history of the constitution and the Supreme epurt, and, coming down to the present needs ! es that body, said: “And now, with its history in the century past, what is needed is that the Supreme court of the United States should sustain its character and be useful in the century to come? I answer, as a matter of the first consideration, that it should not be overborne with work, and by that I mean it should have some relief from the immense burden now cast upon it. This can only be done by legislative action, and in determining what measures shall be adopted for that purpose Congress will undoubtedly receive with favor suggestions from the bar associations of the country. “The cases which have come before the court, springing from causes which did not exist during the first quarter of the century, exceed in the magnitude of the property Interests Involved and in the importance of the public questions presented, all cases brought within the same period before any court of Christendom. -Something must be done to prevent delays. To delay justice is as pernicious as to deny it. One of the most precious articles of the magna charts was that in which the King declared that he would pot deny nor delay to any’ man justice or right. And, assuredly, what the barons of England wrung from their monarch the people of the United States will not refuse to any suitor for justice in their tribunals.” After Mr. Justice Field's address there was more music and then Rev. Talbot W. Chambers pronounced the behediction and ended the literary exercises. The banquet tookplace at night at Lenox Hall. were 850 guest*.