builders who had laid, and cemented with the blood of many, the foundations of American liberty, and who had constructed the shapeliest and strongest scheme for the government of freemen the world has ever known. His beloved commander, the idol of his heart, had been long sleeping in that spot on the romantic banks of the Potomac, then, now and forever to remain the shrine of a nation's love. The ashes of Alexander Hamilton "formed for all parts and in all alike shining variously great," for many years had reposed in an untimely grave. The mild and persuasive Madison, who nearly a half century gone, his colleague and joint laborer in the Virginia Convention to adopt the Constitution, penning with tremulous hand to the people whom he loved, his last pathetic warning against the dangers of nullification and disunion, had less than a year to live. John Adams, the fiery and incorruptible patriot, who had been rocked in every storm of the Revolution, and who declared in his old age that his gift of John Marshall to the people of the United States was the proudest act of his life, and Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, nine years gone, were both dead on Independence Day. Marshall was now nearly eighty years of age. The sweet Virginia maiden, who more than fifty years before had won the love of the affectionate, strong young soldier, coming from the war, the true and tender helpmeet in all the trials and anxieties of his wondrous career, she too, as he said, "a sainted spirit, had fled from the sufferings of life." "The mossy marbles rest

On the lips that he has pressed

In their bloom;

And the names he loved to hear
Have been carved for many a year
On the tomb."

Afflicted by the maladies common to extreme old age, the Chief Justice, who knew his Bible and loved his God, no doubt often dwelt upon the mournful majesty of the Psalmist when he exclaims:

"The days of our years are three-score years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow."

So, with his mighty intellect unclouded to the last, on the 6th of July, 1835, about 6 o'clock in the evening, he calmly met the inevitable hour and passed away in peace.

Though dead, in the love and veneration of his country he lives, and shall live in glorious memory to the latest times; and on this day from the very flower of the country's purity and patriotism, from famous law schools and universities, from the noble profession of the law, from great cities and from hamlets, from the Supreme Courts of all the States and from the Supreme Court of the United States, from the President and from the Senate and House of Representatives, from the grateful hearts of nearly eighty millions of people, fervently come acclamations to the fame of this mighty patriot who taught to the people the imperishable truth so essential to our happiness and strength at home, and our strength and honor abroad; he best loves and serves his State who country loves and serves the best.

STATE OF LOUISIANA.

Marshall day was impressively celebrated under the auspices of the Louisiana State Bar Association, at Tulane Hall, New Orleans, February 4, 1901, at 1:30 p. m. The hall had been fittingly decorated for the occasion. A large and distinguished audience of men and women was present, including the following:

Chief Justice Nicholls and Associate Justices Blanchard, Monroe and Breaux of the Supreme Court of Louisiana; Judges Pardee and Shelby of the United States Circuit Court; Judges Dufour, Moore and Beauregard of the State Court of Appeal; Judges Baker, Moise and Sommerville of the district courts; Harry H. Hall, the Dean of the Law School of Tulane University, who sat with the members of the senior class of the Law School, numbering seventy strong; Charles E. Fenner, former Justice of the Supreme Court of Louisiana; and the following members of the New Orleans bar: W. S. Benedict, Pierre Crabites, J. P. Baldwin, H. C. Cage, State Senator; D. B. Chaffee, Charles F. Claiborne, Joseph W. Carroll, John C. Clegg, F. D. Chretien, Charles P. Cocke, assistant United States District Attorney; John Dymond, Jr., B. R. Forman, William Grant, former United States District Attorney; B. F. Jonas, former United States Senator; T. J. Kernan, E. B. Kruttschnitt, Victor Leovy, C. T. Madison, E. T. Merrick, T. Marshall Miller, R. B. Montgomery, W. C. McLeod, Arthur McGuirk, James D. Nix, Porter Parker, W. S. Parkerson, L. C. Quintero, F. E. Rainold,

Frank L. Richardson, E. D. Saunders, W. B. Spencer, D. M. Sholars, W. J. Waguespack, E. J. Wenck, and a large number of lawyers newly admitted to the bar. Of the general public who were present, Dr. Edwin A. Alderman, the President of the Tulane University, was an attentive listener, as was also Thomas McC. Hyman, the clerk of the Supreme Court.

The meeting was presided over by Henry P. Dart, President of the Louisiana Bar Association. In introducing Joseph P. Blair as the orator of the day, Mr. Dart said:

Introductory Address of Henry P. Dart.

We are gathered that we may be in line with the lawyers of the United States and others who this day are celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of the accession of John Marshall to the Supreme Bench of the United States. He was the expounder, almost the creator, of the system of government which under his inspiration has expanded in power and might and influTo him more than to any single man of his period is to be attributed that centralization of the government of the United States which confessedly is its predominant principle to-day. His position was such and the times were such that he is entitled to the credit of laying the foundations of the principle in the early jurispru dence of the country, and before faction had arisen and before section arrayed itself against section.

ence.

John Marshall represented the theory of nationality, and his position and the situation of affairs gave him the opportunity to construe the Constitution of the United States in such manner that in times thereafter the gen

eral principle was accepted and enforced to its last degree; whether it was better for the country or worse has passed beyond our faculty of judging, but it is well for us as men and as lawyers and as judges to understand those principles and to express ourselves upon them.

There was a time, I doubt not, when the celebration we are now participating in could not have been held with any general enthusiasm south of Mason and Dixon's line; but we are now at one with the lawyers of the United States in recognizing the greatness of John Marshall, and to illustrate his character and to expound his doctrines will be the natural course of things to-day all over the country in meetings of this character.

The chairman of the national committee sends us a telegram from Chicago, which I will read: "Illinois sends greeting to Louisiana; the American bench and bar are united in one common brotherhood on this historic day."

The only duty devolving upon me is to introduce the orator of the day, who is well known to you, and I take great pleasure in presenting Mr. Joseph P. Blair.

Oration of Joseph P. Blair.

On the 17th day of September, 1887, the people of this country observed with fitting ceremony the centenary of the framing and promulgation of the Constitution of the United States. The 4th day of February, 1890, witnessed the centennial celebration of the organization of the Supreme Court of the United States. It is eminently appropriate that these two centenaries should be followed by a commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of the day when John Marshall took his seat as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. For with the Constitution and the Supreme Court of the Na