Almost the whole of Judge Deady's time is now taken up with his official duties. His labors in his own District have been steadily increasing for several years, and he devotes himself to his work with unceasing application. He never contents himself with a partial investigation or exposition of a subject. During the last five years, he has written and published, in the course of his official duties, elaborate opinions on a great variety of legal subjects, and his pen is now extensively employed in this way. He was called to San Francisco again in February, 1868, to hold another term of the United States Circuit Court. It will be sufficient to say that on this occasion he sustained the reputation he had before established. Judge Deady is a close observer of all passing events. Nothing escapes his attention. It is not too much to say that he is regarded as an authority in Oregon affairs, and that his opinions on public questions are consulted and treated with respect by the people of his State. He never attempted to acquire the art of extemporaneous public speaking. His mental constitution and habits are not such as would lead him to engage in it, or enable him to be successful before popular assemblages. He is too much like the man that Antony professed to bethat is, "a plain, blunt man," who "speaks right on.' He has no patience with small expedients and temporary fetches. But though he is not a man who is likely to acquire a showy and noisy popularity, he will always command public respect; and it is well known to those who know him intimately that no man more fully sympathizes with popular progress. In his estimates of men, he is charitable and generous, and for all young men he has words of encouragement. His political views are thoroughly national, and he believes with Marshall and Jackson that the Constitution of the United States forms a Government, and that it confers powers enough to constitute and maintain a nation. His mind is deeply imbued with the philosophy of history, and readily seizes upon the principles which underlie great political and social movements. His erudition is not merely of the showy kind, but it is discriminating, far-reaching, and comprehensive. His proper place is a judicial position, and it may be truly said that he is a man who has found his "sphere" in life. All admit that as a jurist he deservedly holds a high rank. He has explored the original sources of legal learning, and traced the many streams from their fountains to their confluence and expansion into the great system which forms the body of our jurisprudence. He is not slavishly attached to old forms; on the contrary, he has done much to eliminate useless rubbish of this sort from the jurisprudence of Oregon. But he has a genuine attachment and even enthusiasm for the simple and liberal spirit of the elementary principles of the common law. He has done much to promote a study of this system and inculcate a respect and reverence for it. The tendency of his mind in this regard cannot be better shown than by a paragraph or two from an address delivered by him in 1866 before the Portland Law Association, a society of young lawyers in the city where he resides: I urge you not to remain satisfied with such a knowledge as may be gleaned from the modern codes and practice reports. Now, in the freshness and vigor of youth, turn your faces to the past and explore the fields of the common law. As you become conversant with its history, imbued with its spirit, and familiar with its terms and expressions, this will become a labor of love, and a permanent source of profit and delight. It will enlarge your understandings and enrich your minds. Get learning first, and riches afterwards. Most of the great cases, which have arisen in the courts of the United States, have involved principles and the application of rules which had their root and origin far back in the life of the common law. Without a thorough knowledge and familiarity with these, the great advocates, who won imperishable fame in the trial of these causes, would have been comparatively unknown as lawyers, however great and commanding their native ability. One word more. Now-a-days, it is the fashion in some quarters to sneer at the common law, as a relic of feudalism and barbarism, and to point to the civil law as the proper source from whence to draw the jurisprudence of a highly civilized and refined people. But I caution you to beware of this spirit, and be not persuaded by it. I admit that the civil law is a great system, and the outgrowth of a great people. Upon the subject of contracts and kindred matters, most prominent in a purely commercial age, it furnishes a refined and enlightened rule of construction and enforcement. As the people who have the common law for their inheritance, both in England and America, have become devoted to commerce, and increased in wealth and luxury, they have gradually enriched their jurisprudence by assimilations from the civil code. But the law of the Roman Empire is not conducive as a whole to the preservation of personal freedom and independence. It knows nothing of a free representative government, in which the people are continually trained to deliberate upon the public affairs and assist in the administration of the laws. Its principles, procedure and spirit are best adapted to a condition of things, where society is divided into an Emperor and his subjects-the former having an unlimited power of command, and the other only the duty of blind and unquestioning obedience. It knows no authority paramount to the will of the prince. The laws of a people react upon them, and mould their character and opinions. The common law people-the English racewherever they go, establish limited governments, with Parliaments and juries; but the people of the civil law-the Latin race-always come under some modification of the empire, in which the will of the prince, emperor or chieftain, is the only and supreme law. In so far, then, as we discard the fundamental principles of the common law and adopt those of the civil, we are paving the way for the political and social condition of the Roman Empire, in the age of the Cæsars-both good and bad. Probably this is the innate tendency and inevitable result of our Republic, with our diversified and agglomerated population and ever-widening territory. But be this as it may, the common law is the source and panoply of all those features of our system which distinguish us from the subjects of absolute governments, ancient or modern, either by monarchs or majorities. It was made by freemen for freemen, and so long as you think these distinctions between it and the civil law worth preserving, you should cherish it in private, and exalt it in public. As a writer, Judge Deady is ready, correct, and forcible, and the power of his pen is acknowledged by all who are acquainted with its productions. Nor are his best efforts in composition confined altogether to the more weighty matters of the law." A single illustration of his readiness and spirit as a writer may be given. In October, 1864, he was attending the session of the Legislature, then engaged in considering and passing the Code of Criminal Procedure, reported by him. The news of the death of General Russell, then lately killed in battle under Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley, had just reached Salem. Russell before the war had been stationed in Oregon, and had many friends and acquaint ances in that State. A member of the Assembly introduced a series of resolutions eulogistic of the deceased and commemorative of his life and services. The resolutions were pitched on a high key, and among other things the expression in Measure for Measure, "to lie in cold obstruction," was quoted. Some prosy wags took hold of the resolutions, and were disposed to laugh them down. as hifalutin. At the request of their author, Judge Deady wrote and published as editorial the following brief article in the Daily Statesman of the 6th October. It is presented here as a fair specimen of his off-hand composition: IN MEMORIAM. The Assembly has before it a joint resolution to the memory of the late General Russell, long commander at Fort Yamhill, and lately killed in battle under Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley. A printed copy of the resolution lies before us. We rather like it. As befits the occasion, it has the ring of the trumpet and a touch of true poetic fire. When a generous people desire "to honor the patriot dead," or "to encourage their gallant living," their language should rise above the prosy platitudes of a constable's writ, or an inventory of goods and chattels. Cold chronology or genealogy may properly speak of George Washington as an individual who was born, lived, and died in America, and came to be President of the United States. But the orator, the poet, and the painter, seeing in him a model and a mark for his countrymen in all ages, hallow him by the power of genius, and make him the "Father of his Country"- First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." If you would have men die for their country, remember those who thus die. Let the memorial of the brave departed be such as to warm the hearts and elevate the aspirations of those who come after them. The dream of obtaining a monument among the illustrious dead of Westminster Abbey has done more to maintain the dominion, prowess, and prosperity of England than all the gold of her commerce, twice told and repeated. Thus Rome deified the dead and inspired the living, until, with -brave Horatius, The captain of the gate, a Roman was ever ready to sacrifice himself for his country, exclaiming: How can a man die better The resolution is couched in the language of eulogy, and so it should be. This is no time to stop to count the spots on the sun, but to paint the radiant orb in full light. Let all that is mortal of our countryman "lie in cold obstruction," but let our memorial be not only worthy of his death and the cause he gave his life for, but a peerless crown, to be worn again by the living, now and to come. Judge Deady is thoroughly an Oregon man. He takes pride in his State, and believes in asserting her dignity and maintaining her importance as an independent community. The subjoined extract from an article which he wrote for a leading New England publication in the year 1867, furnishes some illustration of this: As a people, we are much inclined to be satisfied with our own approval, and are not disposed to count or feed voraciously upon the applause of the outside world. Conscious of being in the possession of the best country and climate on the continent of America, and not wishing to "sell out," upon any terms short of a billet for "that better land," we are quite indifferent about advertising ourselves or our belongings. Unlike some of our speculative neighbors, we are not at all anxious to get rid of our bargain, or failing in this, to induce others to come forward and share our lot. But mistake me not. If any good folk see proper, without provocation or temptation upon our part, to visit or migrate to this modern Goshen of ours, we will welcome them in a plain way, and mayhap love and trust them when we have tried them and found them to our liking. More than this our amour propre will not allow. And now, having offered meet incense to our proud provincialism, I may as well admit that I can see no harm, but haply some good, in giving you far off New Englanders an occasional reminder that our "lines are cast in pleasant places," and that here in the valley of the Wallamet, and in the gorges and glens of its two enclosing and protecting mountain ranges, is growing slowly and surely the seat of future empire and wealth. Excuse me if I draw it mild, and write with the brake hard down. I dare not be as eulogistic as I might. I do not wish to make you discontented with your lot. However you may now regret it, you are not to blame because the Mayflower was driven by adverse fortune to land your amiable ancestors upon Cape Cod, while this country might have been had for the taking. Nevertheless, it seems probable that at no distant day the prolific Paddy will, by sheer increase of numbers, compel you frigid people to relaunch the ark of your progenitors and voyage forth to seek a new location for the Yankee nation. In such an event, the mistake of the Mayflower may be corrected. The adventurous Angles and Northmen, you know, tarried in the north of Europe for generations before they found their final home on the island of Britain. When your penates and pumpkin seeds are all safely on board and under |