Show r THE FULLER BANQUET t If The Chief Justices Send Off From Chicago HIS VERY ELOQUENT SPEECH f A Royal Love Feast at the Palmer 1 House Last NJjrht Speech by Judge Gresham Th Fuller Banquet CHICAGO September 2Five hundred hun-dred friends of Melville W Fuller the new Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court comprising not only members of the legal fraternity but distinguished representatives of the leading professions and business interests inter-ests of Chicago met him tonight at a grand banquet previous to his departure de-parture to assume his new duties at Washington The scene of the banquet ban-quet was the great dining room of the Palmer House and it was tastefully artistically and in some instances resplendently res-plendently decorated The tables were fairly hid by huge banks of flowers this being particularly the case at the main table at the centre of which sat the guest of the evening and at whose right hand sat Judge Walter Q Gresham When the Chief Justice appeared in the magnificently lighted banquet hall he was saluted with a round of hearty applause After the good things on the bill of fare had been disposed ofJudge Drum mond rapped the assemblage to order and made a speech which evoked great w applause Hi At its conclusion all present rose to their feet and drank to the health of Chief Justice Fuller After this demonstration dem-onstration had subsided the guest of the evening began his speech He said CHIEF JUSTICE FULLERS SPEECH I profoundly appeciate the manifestation manifes-tation of kindly feeling towards me P I personally which accompanies this tribute to the high office to which 1 have been called 1 can conceive of no reward of human endeavor no gratification gratifi-cation in the attainments of human ambition which can be compared com-pared to the affectionate commendation of the friends the associates and the fellowlaborers of years Centuries ago friendship was declared to be the only thing in regard to the benefits of which all men were agreed Many despised de-spised riches many spurned great offices of-fices many disregarded what most thought worthy of admiration but all found friendship essential to an endurable endur-able existence rendering adversity more supportable and prosperity more brilliant So at the close of more than 32 years of prolessional exertion and tk daily companionship this assurance of the regard of my brethren and my people peo-ple is inexpressably grateful It illuminates illu-minates the remembrance of the past and brightens the anticipation of the future in the 32 years the circle enlarging as they ipassed has known many a loosened hand many a missing > face Yet the ties of youth and of advancing I ad-vancing age remained fact unbroken hclding the past the present and the I future in an indissoluble bond When leaving the whispering pines and hundredarbored shores of my native tate I cast my lot with the busy denizens of tne rising city of the Imperial West the members of the fcupreme Court of Illinois were Scates and Skinner speedily followed by Breeze and Walker and Caton Caton the master of the Chicago bar who has not yet ceased to enjoy the GLADSOME LIGHT OFTHAT JUBISPBUDENCE whose foundation he did so much to lay deep and broad for the building of prosperity Freat had shortly before transferred his distinguished services from the State to the Federal Court and Trumbull whom we welcome herein here-in the full tide of successful practice had but just entered upon his great career in the National Senate having for his colleague Stephen A Douglas whose remarkable abilities had already made his name a household word Manniere who died all too early for his fame graced the circuit bench and the astite and logical John M Wilson adorned the court of common pleas while Payne Freer discharged to entire en-tire satisfaction the duties of sole master in chancery of Cook County Mr Justice McLean wno had been PostmasterGeneral under Monroe and appointed to the Supreme Court by Jackson was our circuit judge 3 and the beloved friend who t has honored us by presiding on this Ocbson Drummond had for several years has been informing the country through the decisions of a United States court for the northern district of Illinois that judicial capacity was not confined to that part of the country east of the Allegheny Mount insfIong may he be spared m his wellearned retirement to find that As evening twilight fades away The sky is filled with stars invisible by day In our courts appeared from outside the county such accomplished lawvers as Abraham Lincoln Archibald Williams Wil-liams or William H Browning James F Noy N H Purple Charles A Lawrence Leonard Sweet and a host of others w nile OUR LOCAL BAR was represented by such men as Breck with and ArnoldBlodgett and IcAllis ter and Hitchcock and Tom Hoyne and Sam Fuller and Kales and Walker and Sexton and Tuley and Anthony and McCagg and a little later Jewett and Arrington and Gondy and a year andbut I cant go on the list would embrace substantially the role of the bar for fighting was hot Erery man seemed to be a little corporal corpo-ral for learning accuracy of thought llfoowleclge of men eloquence industry a 41 and skill the bench and bar of those days were the equals of those 6 t < of older communities as indeed I need not say since Victories are still won or prizes of victory awarded by many of the veteran fieldmarahalls who put the squadrons in the field in that old and farott time If there was something some-thing lacking in the suaiiter in mode it was fully made up by the fortiter inure If there was sometimes a little neti tt of literary culture the exigencies of tt e time did not seem to demand absolu e elegance of diction in all cases Tt e law was their school master ai d familiarity with its precepts hd to the knowledge and applica ion of its principles and strength in their expression and there was about all an esprit du corps which made them a band of brothers I DISAGREEING ONLY BY AGREEMENT glorying in the advancement of their fellows and jealously alive to the preservation pre-servation of the integrity and honor of the profession In the lapse of these ears Chicipo has multiplied many times in wealth and population and more in power passing from the overgrowing town to a city and through a baptism of tire from a city to a world in itself the cosmopolitan centre of a great people And as litigation has increased pnd new questions have arisen the bench and bar reenforced I by the steady tide of fresh blood flowing flow-ing in from every seat of learning and every quarter whose confines honorable ambition found too narrow for expression expres-sion have kept steadily abreast of the progress of mankind There is no problem in any branch of the law but has received adequate treatment and accurate solution at their hands while as ot yore the spirit of fraternity infused in-fused through every member of the mass has pervaded sustained and actuated ac-tuated the whole and it has cometo pass that as the star of the empire moving mov-ing westward hangs fixed and resplendent resplend-ent above the Valley of the Mississippi a member of that part a citizen of Chicago Chi-cago has been designated to the hardship hard-ship of THE MIGHTIEST TRIBUNAL ON EARTH Of that tribunal or the grave and weighty responsibility of that office it does not become me to speak or could I were it otherwise appropriate for I am oppressed with the sadness inevitable inevit-able where one after long years of battle bat-tle puts his armor off and retires from the ranks of his comrades Whatever the vicissitudes of these thirtytwo years they have never been marred by personal estrangement from my brethren breth-ren and they have been happy years Personally unambitious 1 have not thought myself selfish in indulging my preference for the sweet habits of life ratner than the struggles involved ina prominent position I have always seen deeply impressed with the truth of the words of one of tho wisest of mankind that men in great places are thrice servants servants of the sovereign or State servants of fame and servants of business so they have no freedom neither in their persons nor in their actions nor in their times But I also know of course that the I performance of duty is the true end of life and I find consolation in the thought that though in THE EFFORT TO PROVE WORTHY of the confidence of a great and common com-mon country I must tread the winepress wine-press alone I shall be sustained by the sympathy and the friendship and the good will of those who whom I have dwelt with so long and my affection for home that no office however exalted no eminence however great can impede or diminish And now gentle hearers wishing for you and invoking that blessing for myself my-self without which none can prosper I trust as you accompany me to the ship we need not sorrow as those who shall see each others faces no more but that we part in the reasonable expectation that th re will be many returns to the home port from the haven for which the bidding of public duty compels me to embark JUDGE WALTER Q GHESHAM was greeted with rousing cheers when he arose to make his address The display dis-play was one of unusual enthusiasm Judge Gresham made a short speech which was very warmly received |