Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 64, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 April 1899 — DEATH OF STEPHEN J. FIELD. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

DEATH OF STEPHEN J. FIELD.

Former Justice Too Feeble to Fight Off Disease. In the death of Stephen J. Field, formerly a justice of the United States Supreme Court, the country loses the last of

the great jurists of a previous generation and another of the four brothers who became famous, each in his own way. Justice Field’s death had been looked for for two years or more, but it came to Washington as a surprise, because It was not known that his condition had reached a critical stage.

He had been living a quiet life at his home since quitting the bench Dec. 4, 1897. His retirement from that high position was due to old age and feebleness, and even before leaving the Supreme Court his condition had been alarming, but after his return to private life he dropped out of public notice. His constitution, already impaired by old age and kidney troubles, was still further weakened by an attack of grip some months ago. He took another slight cold about two weeks ago, and he gradually became worse. His vitality had been sapped by his former sickness, and he steadily grew weaker until the end came. During his term of more than a third of a century Mr. Field was concerned in some of the most important cases ever passed upon by the Supreme Court. Among the prominent decisions was the famous test oath case, in which he gave the casting vote and wrote the opinion of the court annulling the validity of the “ironclad” oath. His dissenting opinions in the confiscation cases, the legal tender cases, and in the New Orleans slaughter house case attracted the widest attention.

JUSTICE FIELD.