an erroneous decision, which, at one time, nearly all of the judges would have pronounced against his advice. Mr. Todd entered upon the duties of judge of the Supreme Court at the age of forty-two: the station required an experienced head upon a younger man's shoulders. He possessed at that time the abilities to act under the system which made it the duty of the judge to sit twice a year in the three western States, and vii*] once a year at *Washington; but no constitution could long survive under the operation of this incongruous system, and the last years of Judge Todd were worn down with the duties of his office. A dyspepsia which impaired his general health, gradually reduced his strength, and for the last two years of his life he rarely attended the court. Judge Todd's person was finely proportioned, and his face a model of beauty and intelligence. The soundness of his judgment, the dignity of his manners, and the probity of his conduct, made him the esteemed associate of Shelby and other patriotic statesmen who adorned the early annals of the State; as well as of those who in latter days have shed imperishable lustre on the genius and character of the first republic in the wilderness of the great west. Posterity will long venerate the name of a citizen who, among such contemporaries, by the force of his talents and the integrity of his heart, rose to the first offices of his country. "Mr. Justice Todd possessed many qualities admirably fitted for the proper discharge of judicial functions. He had uncommon patience and candor in investigation; great clearness and sagacity of judgment; a cautious but steady energy; a well balanced independence; a just respect for authority, and at the same time an unflinching adherence to his own deliberate opinions of the law. His modesty imparted a grace to an integrity and singleness of heart, which won for him the general confidence of all who knew him. He was not ambitious of innovations upon the settled principles of the law, but was content with the more unostentatious character of walking in the trodden paths of jurisprudence: super antiquas vias legis. From his diffident and retiring habits, it required a long acquaintance with him justly to appreciate his juridical as well as his personal merits. His learning was of a useful and solid cast; not, perhaps, as various or as comprehen: sive as that of some men, but accurate and transparent, and applicable to the daily purposes of the business of human life. In his knowledge of the local law of Kentucky he 10 L. ed. was excelled by few, and his brethren drew largely upon his resources to administer that law, in the numerous cases which then crowded the docket of the Supreme Court from that judicial circuit. What he did not know, he never affected to possess; but sedulously sought to acquire. He was content to learn, without assuming to dogmatize. Hence he listened to arguments for the purpose of instruction, and securing examination, and not merely for that of confutation, or debate. Among his associates he enjoyed an enviable respect, which was constantly increasing as he became more familiarly known to them. His death was deemed by them a great public calamity, and in the memory of those who survived him, his name has ever been cherished with a warm and affectionate remembrance. No man ever clung to the Constitution of the United States with a more strong and resolute attachment. And in the grave cases which were agitated in the Supreme Court of the United States during his judicial life, he steadfastly supported the constitutional doctrines which Mr. Chief Justice Marshall promulgated, in the name of the court. It is to his [viii honor, and it should be spoken, that, though bred in a different political school from that of the Chief Justice, he never failed to sustain those great principles of constitutional law on which the security of the Union depends. He never gave up to party what he thought belonged to the country. For some years before his death he was sensible that his health was declining, and that he might soon leave the bench, to whose true honor and support he had been so long and so zealously devoted. To one of his brethren who had the satisfaction of possessing his unreserved confidence, he often communicated his earnest hope that Mr. Justice Trimble might be his successor, and he bore a willing testimony to the extraordinary ability of that eminent judge. It affords a striking proof of his sagacity and foresight; and the event fully justified the wisdom of his choice. Although Mr. Justice Trimble occupied his station on the bench of the Supreme Court for a brief period only, yet he has left on the records of the court enduring monuments of talents and learning fully adequate to all the exigencies of the judicial office. To both these distinguished men, under such circumstances, we may well apply the touching panegyric of the poet: |