Lapas attēli
PDF
ePub

APPENDIX D.

A BILL

To DIMINISH THE EXPENSE OF PROCEEDINGS ON APPEAL AND WRITS OF ERROR.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled: That section six hundred and ninety-eight of the Revised Statutes of the United States is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

"Upon the appeal of any cause in equity, or of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, or of prize or no prize, and upon any writ of error or of certiorari, twenty-five printed transcripts of the record, and of such part or abstract of the proofs as rules of court may require, and of such entries and papers on file as may be necessary on the hearing of the appeal, shall be transmitted to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court shall, by rule, provide the form and manner of printing such transcripts, and for the payment of the expense thereof, and no written or typewritten transcript of the record shali be required. Provided, that either the court below, or the Supreme Court, may order any original document or other evidence to be sent up, in addition to the printed copies of the record, or in lieu of printed copies of a part thereof."

OBITUARIES

ALABAMA.

ALEXANDER TROY LONDON.

Alexander Troy London was born in the historic town of Wilmington, North Carolina, February 28, 1847, his ancestors having settled in the old North State prior to the Revolutionary War. The Troy family numbers in its ranks many members of prominence, both in North Carolina and Alabama.

Mr. London was educated in the private schools of Wilmington and Raleigh, N. C., but before his education was complete he left school for the army, in May, 1864. He joined the ranks of the First North Carolina Regiment of Junior Reserves, and almost immediately was promoted to be regimental adjutant. At the close of the service he was acting as adjutant-general of the brigade of which his regiment formed a part. After the war, he read law under his father, in Wilmington, N. C., and was there admitted to practice June 30, 1869. About 1880, his health becoming precarious, he spent four years roughing it in a variety of occupations in South Carolina. Having recovered, he joined his uncle, Daniel S. Troy, in Montgomery, and in January, 1885, became a member of the firm of Troy, Tompkins and London, which, for a number of years, enjoyed the distinction of being one of the most noted law firms in the state.

A few years later he located at Birmingham, and almost immediately entered upon a career of leadership at the Bar, which only terminated with his death. He served at various times as counsel for the Elyton Land Company, and of its successor, also for the Birmingham Water Works Company, and for other strong corporations. In 1902 he was elected to the legislature from the County of Jefferson, and in that body, during the ses

sion of 1903, ranked among the leaders. This was his only service of an official character, and yet he was profoundly and earnestly interested in everything bearing upon public affairs. He was actively interested in the elevation of the standards of his profession, and the Alabama State Bar Association had no more zealous member. He strove to bring about purer conditions in the administration of municipal affairs, was a strong supporter and advocate of the public schools, and joined forces with those engaged in the effort for the establishment of a free public library in the City of Birmingham.

Mr. London was known as a close student, a safe and resourceful lawyer, a lover of literature and art and a pleasant speaker. He died August 27, 1908, survived by his wife.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

MARTIN FERDINAND MORRIS.

He

Martin Ferdinand Morris was born in the City of Washington, District of Columbia, December 3, 1834, being the son of John F. and Joanna Lawton (Colbert) Morris. He was graduated from Georgetown University in 1854, and received the degree of Doctor of Laws from that university in 1877. was admitted to the Bar, and practised his profession in the City of Baltimore from 1863 to 1867, and afterwards in Washington, to which city he went to enter into partnership with the late Richard T. Merrick. Mr. Morris remained in partnership with Mr. Merrick until the latter's death in 1885, when he formed a partnership with George E. Hamilton, under the name of Morris and Hamilton. In this firm he continued the practice of law until the establishment of the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia in 1893, when he became an associate justice of that court, a position held until his retirement on June 30, 1906. He died at Washington, September 12, 1909.

In 1871, in connection with the late Joseph M. Toner and Charles W. Hoffman, Mr. Morris founded the Georgetown College Law School, now the Law School of Georgetown University.

He was for many years a professor in that school and published a volume of lectures on the History of the Development of Constitutional and Civil Liberty, together with numerous monographs and essays.

In his early youth Mr. Morris entered the Jesuit Order as a scholastic with a view to the priesthood, an office for which his cast of mind, scholarly tastes and personal disposition, together with his studious habits and great erudition, would have conspicuously fitted him, but he was turned from his cherished career by the death of his father.

Mr. Morris' tastes and inclinations made him pre-eminently an office lawyer and counsellor, and his appearances in court were largely in the field of argument and elucidation of legal questions, though he participated in many trials of importance, including the trial of John H. Surratt.

As a member of the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia, Judge Morris exhibited in his opinions the learning, acumen and high logical faculty for which he was universally known in the professional and literary world of Washington, and on his retirement from the Bench he was the recipient of a tribute from the Bar of the District of Columbia, a report of which is to be found in the twenty-sixth volume of the reports of the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia.

Judge Morris never married. In disposition and manner Judge Morris was dignified, but most unassuming and kindly in his relations with all, and, in addition to his deserved rcputation as a learned and just judge, loyal in the highest degree to the law and the best traditions of the profession, he left a rare memory for loftiness of character, simplicity of life and the strictest and fullest discharge of a man's duty in its every relation.

ILLINOIS.

WALTER REEVES.

Walter Reeves, for many years a leading figure at the Illinois. Bar, died at his home in Streator, in that state, on April 9, 1909. Mr. Reeves was born at Brownsville, Virginia, on Sep

tember 25, 1848, and was the son of Harrison and Maria Leonard Reeves. He was taken to Illinois as a child in the year 1856, and took up his residence afterwards at Streator, and was admitted to the Bar of Illinois in 1875. He practised his profession there, and was widely and favorably known as a lawyer of prominence and ability throughout the state. Mr. Reeves was a Republican in politics, and took an active part in public affairs and in the politics of his state. In 1894 he was elected to Congress from what was then the eleventh district of Illinois, and was three times re-elected. In 1900 he was one of the leading candidates for nomination for Governor, and was defeated by a very small majority. He was an active member of the Rivers and Harbors Committee in Congress, and a useful and efficient representative of his state and district. Mr. Reeves was married in 1876 to Miss Metta M. Cogswell.

LEROY DELANO THOMAN.

Leroy Delano Thoman was born in Salem, Ohio, July 31, 1851, and died at his home in Evanston, a suburb of Chicago, on Monday, April 19, 1909. Mr. Thoman was educated in the public schools of Ohio and Indiana, and for two years studied at an academy in South Whitley, in the latter state. He taught school for five years, pursuing his legal studies during this period sufficiently to qualify himself for admission to the Bar of Ohio in 1872. He practised his profession in that state, and was elected county judge of Mahoning County, serving in that capacity for six years. He always took an active interest in public affairs, and participated to some extent in politics. He was a Democrat, although during the later years of his life he did not subscribe to the views of his party on the currency and financial question. From 1883 to 1886 he served as a member of the Civil Service Commission of the United States, having been appointed by President Hayes when the commission was first created under the so-called Pendleton Act. He was always interested in the cause of Civil Service Reform, and a consistent advocate of all measures calculated to make tenure of office depend on proved fitness rather than on partisan efficiency.

« iepriekšējāTurpināt »