accepted. Mr. Waite was defeated, but the high esteem in which he was held at home is shown by the fact that he received within five hundred of all the votes cast in Toledo-having a majority of twelve hundred, the most emphatic endorsement ever given to any public man by the people of that city. In November, 1872, the future Chief-Justice was in New York city, engaged in closing up an important cause which had been long standing. While there he received a dispatch which had been reforwarded to him from Toledo, appointing him one of the counsel for the Government at Geneva. He accepted the honorable retainer, and his conduct of the matter was so successful that he attracted the notice and attention of all the prominent public men in the United States. He was associated in this arbitration at Geneva with the Hon. Caleb Cushing and his college class-mate, the Hon. William M. Evarts. His appointment was made at the suggestion of Secretary Delano, and he, very far from being an applicant for the position, did not know that such an appointment was to be made at that time. The public service which he performed at this important arbitration, was highly creditable and satisfactory, both to the Government and the country. He performed most of the labor in the preparation of the case for his Government, and in the argument which he submitted on the liability of Great Britain for permitting the Confederate steamers to take supplies of coal in her ports, he displayed the highest logical powers, and the most comprehensive grasp of international questions. It is not too high praise to say, that the success of the arbitration was very considerably due to his talents and labors. Having, with distinguished success, terminated his public labors at Geneva, Mr. Waite returned to his adopted State, and there quietly resumed the practice of his profession. In April, 1873, both political parties nominated him for the office of delegate to a Convention, called to frame a new Constitution for the State. He was unanimously elected, and, upon the assembling of the Convention, was chosen its President. Chief Justice Chase had died, thereby creating a vacancy in the highest judicial office in the United States. The public, and the bar of the country, stood waiting with eager expectation to learn who would receive the appointment of chief of that tribunal, which is the custodian of the liberties and rights of fifty millions of people. Many distinguished names were brought forward, and some had earnest supporters, but the choice fell upon one, whom all now concede, to be best fitted to fill the highest position in the most dignified and elevated judicial office in this or any other land. There are many prizes offered to the successful lawyer, but few can hope to reach the eminence of Chief-Justice of the United States, and, of those who hope for it, but few realize that hope. Since the Court was organized, there have been seven incumbents only of the highest office. Marshall and Taney being upon the bench for sixty-three years. Hon. George H. Williams and Hon. Caleb Cushing, were successively nominated and withrawn, and on the 20th of January, 1874, the President sent to the Senate the name of Mr. Waite. Just one year before, he had been admitted to practice in the tribunal in which he was so soon to preside, upon the motion of Caleb Cushing. The nomination almost unanimously met the approval of the public and the press, the leading newspapers throughout the country approved it, and pronounced it "thoroughly respectable, and evincing in the President an earnest desire to discharge his very difficult duty in a conscientious manner."* The nomination was the more honorable because of the fact that Mr. Waite not only made no effort to influence the President's choice, but advised against such efforts when offered by his friends. Not only was the appointment made without solicitation on the part of Mr. Waite, but it is believed and confidently asserted by those who are in a position to be well informed, that no pressure *New York Times. was brought to bear upon the President to bring about the result. General Grant never made a political appointment which gave more general satisfaction, and in a manner that better befitted it. The Ohio State Convention was in session when the news arrived that Mr. Waite had been nominated to the second highest office in the nation, and found him presiding over its deliberations. A gentleman stepped up to congratulate him, and found that he was ignorant of the fact of his nomination. The news was received in the most enthusiastic manner by the members and citizens, to many of whom Mr. Waite had become personally endeared. Unusual excitement pervaded the Convention during all the remainder of the day, but the calm unruffled dignity of the presiding officer would not have revealed the fact that anything unusual had occurred. Mr. Waite was confirmed as Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States by a vote which was never equaled in its favorable character within the memory of the oldest senator. During the entire discussion not a word was said in opposition to the nominee. Every senator who spoke, did so in terms of warmest praise. When the discussion was ended a vote was taken by yeas and nays, and the result was something which rarely, if ever, occurred in the Senate. He received every vote cast. Sixty-three senators voted for his confirmation, and not one in opposition. It is difficult to say whether it was a greater compliment to himself or to the man who nominated him. Chief-Justice Waite took the oath of office March 4th, 1874, and immediately entered upon the duties of his exalted station. The opinions of the Chief-Justice will be found reported in the volumes of Wallace United States Reports from the 19th to the 23d, and in the series ⚫ of Otto's United States Reports. He was married September 21st, 1840, to Amelia C. Warner, of his native town. They have three living. children; one son who is superintendent of the Cincin nati and Muskingum Valley Railroad, another son who has been recently admitted as a partner in the law firm at Toledo, and a daughter at home. The present is not the proper time or occasion to speak of the private and social virtues of the eminent man whose public career I have thus endeavored to trace. That task will be more appropriately performed hereafter. May it be many a long year before any one is called upon to do so. A sense of delicacy forbids any attempt to speak the ulogy of the living. It is the province of the cotemporary observer to note facts, and to record the life and actions of those eminent men who still remain upon the stage, and of posterity to pass upon their merits after they shall have gone from among us. It is sufficient here to say, what all who know Chief-Justice Waite will regard as but a simple act of justice, that in the domestic relations and in the private and social intercourse of life, he is as much beloved as he is respected in his public and judicial character. A reputation beyond reproach or the breath of calumny, a purity of life that no man can assail, a frank, independent, manly uprightness of conduct which knows no guile, are united with that benignity of temper, those generous sympathies of the heart, and those solid household virtues which brighten the social circle and gladden the domestic hearth. In his intercourse with others there is a warmth of kindly feeling, united with an unaffected simplicity of manner, that irresistably win upon all who approach him; but it is blended with a natural dignity of carriage that commands respect and represses undue familiarity. He came to the bench a deeply read and profoundly learned lawyer a master of the principles, and thoroughly skilled in the practice of the law. He brought with him large acquirements and the fruits of a ripe experience, and the result has been that he has sustained himself with ability and honor as the head of the Federal judiciary, and has proved himself, in the words of Mr. Clay, in speaking of one of his predecessors, "a worthy suc |