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fact, all of the work which now falls under our present system to the Circuit Court Judge. That prevailed in Atlantie County, which I remember with very great affection, Cumberland, Salem and Cape May.

"After twenty years of work there I was transferred to the equity branch of the Court and there worked, I think, for about nine years until Governor Murphy reappointed me to the Supreme Court, and as a Justice of the Supreme Court as I had previously been, I was a Judge ex-officio of this Court.

"During the years that I worked I met the members of the Bar in South Jersey and while acting as a Justice in the Supreme Court and ex-officio Judge of this Court, I met the members of the Bar in other parts of the State. The feeling of affection which grew between me and them has always persisted. I have always felt kindly toward the Bar and when, in the course of events, I left my judicial duties, I always thought kindly and affectionately of listening to those arguments day after day in this and in the Supreme Court by the different members of the Bar. But more than this, the membership of the Court, which had grown out of the membership of the Bar, had always been so kindly, had always worked so assiduously in their various duties that to them I felt the same affection which I had to the members of the Bar.

"And so when this suggestion was made of a picture that would stand here with the other figures which have been painted by other artists and have been on these walls for so many years, my heart went out with thankfulness and gratification to those who had the kindly thought that something as a reminder of my course as Judge and of their courses as lawyers should be left on these walls during my life and after my life. I say my feelings of affection went out towards those who have so kindly suggested this portrait.

"It has been so many years ago-why, in this very Court now there is an honored member who was a lawyer just commencing his honorable career, and so it has been through all my life. Who is a lawyer to-day is a judge to-morrow; who is a junior to-day is a senior to-morrow.

"And so our jurisprudence has been made up of members of this Court who have been members of the Supreme Court, who have been members of the Circuit Court, and who have

died in honor. And the jurisprudence of this State has been built up by men of this class, men whom I was with for years, and will be made up in the future by men who will succeed me. And you as Judges now are building up the jurisprudence of New Jersey which, I may say, is honored in every State in the Union.

"And now, without further words, I can only return my thanks to the members of the Committee and those members who co-operated with the Committee in this kindly act, and also to extend my thanks to those who have thought of placing my picture here among those, who for so many years, have acted for the Commonwealth of New Jersey, and to the Executive of the State in whom is the appointing power of the Judges who build up the jurisprudence of the State and I say to all of you that you have my utmost thanks." MR. COLLINS, addressing the Governor, said:

"Governor Edge, in voicing the wish of the bench and bar of this State that you will accept in behalf of the State the portrait now upon the easel, it seems proper that a few words should be said as to the career of the distinguished judge who is the subject of the portrait; because I take it these proceedings will be recorded and as usual preserved in the volume of reports of the current term.

"Alfred Reed is an American of Colonial and Revolutionary ancestry, and a thorough Jerseyman, born in 1839 at Reed Manor in Ewing Township in the environs of Trenton, property which had been in the family from early times. He was educated at Lawrenceville High School and the Trenton Model School, then matriculated at Rutgers College, where he was registered for awhile, but finished his education elsewhere. He became a member of the Bar of New York, but early came back to his home county and was admitted to the Bar of New Jersey in 1864. In 1867, while still under 28 years of age, he was elected Mayor of Trenton. In 1869 a new court, in a sense, was established in many of the counties of this State, the antiquated system of Justices of the Peace or judges appointed from outside the profession being superseded by the appointment of law judges. Mr. Reed became the first law judge of Mercer County in 1869 and served a term of five years. Here he was associated with the presiding judge, then Chief Justice Beasley, and soon gave evidence of the ability with which he had been

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endowed. At the end of his term, I presume through change in politics, though I do not remember, he was not reappointed, but a year later he was appointed to the Supreme Court-in April, 1875. He served in that tribunal with great acceptability twenty years. You have heard him say how arduous were the duties that devolved on him in those earlier days.

"At the end of twenty years he accepted an appointment as Vice-Chancellor at the hands of Chancellor McGill. He was reappointed by Chancellor Magie, and served in all nine. years as Vice-Chancellor, evincing a versatility that perhaps is not usual, being equally adept in equity as in the courts of the common law. I do not know that that is so strange, because the members of the Bar are trained in both branches of jurisprudence; but there seems to be with some men an aptitude for one or the other and not for both. Not so with Judge Reed. As Vice-Chancellor his opinions are models and in both the law and equity reports they are his best memorial. What he has written will be preserved for years

to come and will stand as his monument.

"At the end of nine years Justice Van Syckel resigned for reasons of ill health. Governor Murphy asked Judge Reed to go back to the Supreme Court. He hesitated for he was very happy where he was; his labor was very congenial; there was no traveling about; but at the urgent request of his fellow members of the court who wanted him back, he returned, served another term and then retired to well merited repose.

"His case is unique, for with the slight exception of 1874, one year's interval, he has occupied judicial position for forty-two years. I know of no other case, in our State at least, of that character, in the Common Pleas and Supreme Court and Court of Chancery and in the court of last resort.

"We do well to honor him, and as I said to him it is profoundly gratifying to us all that we are able to do so while he is yet alive and can appreciate our regard.

"I ask you, Governor, to accept in behalf of the State, this portrait of Mr. Alfred Reed."

GOVERNOR EDGE then said:

"Judge Collins, Judge Reed and members of the Court: It is particularly gratifying to me to be permitted by virtue of my official position to have a modest part in this ceremony which honors a distinguished jurist and citizen. I recall

very clearly in my schoolboy days and I appreciate very much Judge Reed's modest reference to his affection, among other counties in the southern tier, to his affection for Atlantic County-I recall in those schoolboy days his name being so frequently used as a model in Atlantic County, and surrounding the mere reference to Judge Reed was an inspiration for the best in citizenship.

"I remember as a young reporter in my teens very frequently attending the sessions of the Court when he presided in Mays Landing, and being so much impressed with his dignity and his exactness and his broad and sound view.

"I congratulate those who have brought about this merited recognition. I will ask the Chief Justice, as representing the State, to assume the custody of the portrait.

"When it is hung with the other distinguished jurists, some who have gone to the Great Beyond and others who are still with us, exercising their influence on the community, may it, with the others, act as an inspiration for still loftier ideals and a truer type of American citizenship.'

CHIEF JUSTICE GUMMERE then said:

"Governor Edge, our Beloved Friend and Gentlemen of the bar and bench: I know I speak for every one of the members of the Court in which I sit when I say that it is a great pleasure to each one of us to join in doing honor to a man who for so many years rendered distinguished service to the people of this State. As Judge Collins has said, his career has been unique. Five years after he had been admitted to the Bar as an attorney he took his seat on the bench of the courts of this county, and was there associated with Chief Justice Beasley, whom we all loved and revered. During his five years of service, his growth in legal learning, his development of a judicial character was so marked that when Governor Bedle, in 1875, was called upon to appoint two new members of the Supreme Court and having selected on his own initiative Jonathan Dixon-who practiced under him during the days when Governor Bedle was a member of the Supreme Court and presided in Hudson County-he consulted with Chief Justice Beasley, as I happen to know from the man himself, as to the best man in southern New Jersey to be appointed for the other position, and from his personal knowledge of the man the Chief Justice urged the appointment of Alfred Reed.

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"The soundness of the judgment of that great jurist was signally vindicated by the career of Justice Reed during his then twenty years of service in the Supreme Court. And at the end of that time our friend permitted himself to be persuaded to leave the courts of the common law and take up a new work in the equity tribunal. Perhaps that is not exactly accurate, nor is the expression of Judge Collins of some surprise that Alfred Reed made such a great equity judge entirely justified, for twenty years he had sat in the highest equity court of the State and laid down equitable principles for the guidance and protection of our people.

"At the end of nine years' service in the equity court he came back into the Supreme Court, succeeding Justice Van Syckel, who had just retired from active service. In that nine years wonderful changes had occurred in the Supreme Court. When Justice Reed, in 1895, withdrew from that Court he left behind him two men, Chief Justice Beasley and Associate Justice Depue, who were each of them then serving their fifth consecutive term; he left behind him. Justice Van Syckel who was then near the end of his fourth successive term; he left behind him Justice Dixon who was serving his third term and had nearly completed it; and Justice Magie who was also serving his third continuous term. Altogether six men whose experience, whose legal knowledge, whose education in the conference room, made this Supreme Court at this time, in my humble opinion, the greatest court that New Jersey has ever had.

"On the retirement of Justice Van Syckel what was the situation? Out of the eight remaining justices, five of them had served a period of from one year and a half to four years, practically new men constituting a majority of the Court, and the problem which was presentd to Governor Murphy, as Judge Collins has said, was 'How best can I supply the great loss which has come to the State by the retirement of Justice Van Syckel,' and not feeling competent to solve that question himself he consulted with the men he thought best qualified to advise him and every one of them urged upon Governor Murphy not only the propriety but the almost absolute necessity of persuading Justice Reed to come back, for the addition of another new and inexperienced man to the court was, as everbody will recognize instantly, a most undesirable thing in the then condition of the court.

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