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LITTLE ROCK &c. RAILROAD v. EAST TENN. &c. CO. 699
Opinion of the Court.

MR. CHIEF JUSTICE FULLER delivered the opinion of the

court.

This was a bill in equity filed by the Little Rock and Memphis Railroad Company against the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad Company and the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railroad Company in the Circuit Court of the United States for the Western District of Tennessee, April 13, 1889, praying for a mandatory injunction against the defendants, requiring them to afford complainant "the same equal facilities as are afforded to any other connecting road, and for such other relief as may be deemed equitable.' Defendants filed their joint and several demurrers July 17, 1889, and on the first of October, 1891, the cause having theretofore been submitted to the court, a final decree was entered dismissing the bill of complaint for want of equity, from which decree complainant prayed an appeal to this court, which was allowed and duly perfected.

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By the fifth section of the judiciary act of March 3, 1891, c. 517, 26 Stat. 826, appeals or writs of error can be taken directly to this court in six classes of cases there enumerated, and the case before us falls within none of them. Jurisdiction as existing before the passage of the act was preserved by a joint resolution of March 3, 1891, 26 Stat. 1115, as to pending cases and cases wherein the writ of error or appeal should be sued out or taken before July 1, 1891. In this case the decree was not rendered until the first day of October of that year. It follows that the appeal must be dismissed. National Exchange Bank v. Peters, 144 U. S. 570.

By the sixteenth section of the interstate commerce act, (24 Stat. c. 104, 379; 25 Stat. c. 382, 855,) it was provided that where the commission had made any lawful order or requirement, and a party refused to obey or perform it, it should be lawful for the commission, or any person or company interested therein, to apply to the Circuit Court sitting in equity for the enforcement of such order; and it was further provided, in respect of the action of the Circuit Court, that "whenever the subject in dispute shall be of the value of two

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Opinion of the Court.

thousand dollars or more, either party to such proceeding before said court may appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, under the same regulations now provided by law in respect of security for such appeal." In Interstate Commerce Commission v. Railroad Company, 149 U. S. 264, where an appeal was taken directly to this court after July 1, 1891, from an order in a proceeding under that act, we held that it would not lie. Certainly there can be no different result in this case. Appeal dismissed.

APPENDIX.

I.

In Memoriam.

HOWELL EDMONDS JACKSON, LL.D.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES.

Monday, November 25, 1895

Present: THE CHIEF JUSTICE,

MR. JUSTICE FIELD,

MR. JUSTICE HARLAN,

MR. JUSTICE GRAY,

MR. JUSTICE BROWN,

MR. JUSTICE SHIRAS, and

MR. JUSTICE WHITE.

MR. ATTORNEY GENERAL addressed the court as follows:

It is with more than a sense of official propriety that I comply with the request of the bar by presenting to the court their resolutions relating to the late Justice Jackson. We of his home circuit knew him best. There were his birthplace and his home. There his first regular judicial work was done, by which he made the reputation that led to the call from across the party wall to a seat beside Your Honors.

The active bar always feel some misgivings when a man in public life, even though he has won distinction there, is called to the bench, especially when he has reached middle age. But they soon found

that Howell Edmonds Jackson was not so much a senator who had been appointed judge as a judge who had served for a time as senator. His mind, naturally broad and strong, symmetrically

Proceedings on the Death of Mr. Justice Jackson.

developed, controlled by steady purpose, and directed by industry which seemed almost weariless, would have enabled him to fill with credit any place which requires such qualities. He had so filled the high positions to which the resolutions refer, but he was peculiarly fitted for the duties of a judge. He had in high degree patience to hear and consider, and firmness to decide. He had an even temper, judgment unprejudiced toward men or things, and a logical turn of mind which naturally shed irrelevance and sophistry and inclined to accuracy of fact and correctness of conclusion. He loved justice in the concrete as well as in the abstract and felt the pleasure a strong judge always takes in applying the principles of law to the redress of wrongs; but he knew and loved the system of judicial science too well to wrench or impair it, and unsettle the rights of the great body of the people, in seeking to avoid those occasional hardships against which human law, being necessarily general, cannot provide. So his decisions were of the kind which build and perfect our jurisprudence, and not a series of mere arbitrary judgments. There are few among them which the legal mind hesitates to adopt among the precedents which keep the law in healthful life and growth.

He was never chargeable with the blunders of a careless man or the vacillations of a weak one, but won respect even when he failed to convince, because he reached his conclusions by the broad highways and not by indirection or evasion.

Some have excelled him in extent of learning and others in mere force of intellect, but few have equalled him in the comprehensive perception and abiding sagacity which result from a harmony of powers. His vigorous practical understanding was not to be bewildered by details, confused by doubtful or conflicting precedents, nor misled by refinements of reasoning. His decisions always bore the stamp of his own mind and character.

Absorbed as he was in the exacting duties of the circuit, his health was shaken before he realized it, but he never lost patience or resolution. The vigor he showed as a member of this court in the number and promptness of his opinions, as well as by their lucid thoroughness, was in spite of the dragging of disease. And one of the most striking instances of the calm heroism of peace was the resumption of his place when the public interest required it in the income tax case. However opinion, legal and lay, was and may remain divided on the questions involved in that case.

Proceedings on the Death of Mr. Justice Jackson.

there is, and will be, no divided judgment about the high qualities shown by the opinion of Mr. Justice Jackson, which all feared would be, and which was, his last. Though the effort required undoubtedly hastened the end, no true friend or patriot can feel regret, because it has put on imperishable record an example of devotion to public duty whose worth cannot be too highly esteemed.

The feeling of personal bereavement which prevails to a very unusual extent among those who knew Justice Jackson seems to me the highest tribute to his memory. There is no warmth in mere mental power or acquirement, nor in the most careful correctThese may kindle admiration or envy, but not the affection which is the best tribute of man to man. I do not mean the mere result of pleasant ways, but the sturdy liking implied in the line

ness.

"He makes no friends who never made a foe."

He had a kind and considerate nature, but it did not blind him to his duty, nor swerve him from it; and he was free from that morbid excess of virtue which makes some good men unjust to their friends.

Reputation and honors did not affect his quiet simplicity, nor add to the unobtrusive dignity which needed no assertion.

The entire life of Justice Jackson illustrates the efficiency of steadfast devotion to duties which come without self-seeking and are met with diligence, earnestness, and sincerity of mind and purpose. His seven years as Circuit Judge gave him time to accomplish a most honorable career. Few positions put capacity and character to so severe a test as the office of judge of a court of first resort and general jurisdiction. This applies with great fitness to the sixth circuit, whose four States, reaching from Lake Superior to the Appalachian Range, like a cross-section of the great Republic, present almost every variety of population, business, and laws. Such a judge must admit and exclude evidence, sift, discern, and analyze facts, and apply legal principles generally, all without the advantage of associates, sometimes with slight aid from counsel, and often with little opportunity for study and reflection. Many of his judgments are final, and few are open to complete review; but every act and utterance undergo the impartial and unerring scrutiny of the bar and the people.

The powers of this highest of all tribunals are too great to be

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