Rufus W. Peckham was born in the city of Albany in 1838. He was the son of one of our most distinguished jurists, who rounded out his career by serving upon the Bench of the highest court of the State, and whose life was cut short, while still in the full vigor of his powers, by a terrible catastrophe at sea. Bearing his father's name and strongly resembling him in his physical, mental and moral characteristics, Rufus W. Peckham had an hereditary claim to the regard and esteem of his fellow-citizens of this State. His is one of the rare instances in which the honors of the father have descended naturally to the son. He and his elder brother, Wheeler H. Peckham, became eminent members of the profession, and achieved for themselves a distinction worthy of that which had been bequeathed to them by their father. Rufus W. Peckham practised law for many years in the city of Albany with ability and success. He was a man of vigorous and forceful character; frank and outspoken and courageous in every relation of life. In the practice of his profession he won the respect and admiration of his brethren of the Bar, the members of the Bench and the public at large. He was elected a justice of the Supreme Court of this State more than twenty-five years ago, and until his death he remained continuously in judicial office, so that to very few of the members of this Association was he known otherwise than as a judge, and for most of us it is difficult to think of him except as we remember him in the performance of his judicial functions, or as we met him personally and socially, from time to time, during his judicial career. Elected to the Supreme Court of this State in 1883; transferred to the Court of Appeals of the State, January 1, 1887, and to the Supreme Court of the United States in January, 1896, and dying in the full vigor of his ripe manhood in 1909, while still serving on the Bench, he has been to the members of the Bar of this State for a quarter of a century our ideal of judicial character and conduct. His intellectual perceptions were keen and penetrating; his power of analysis of intricate questions of fact and law were unexcelled; his terse, forcible and vigorous expressions of his conclusions, as embodied in the opinions which he from time to time delivered in the various courts of which he was a member, will always remain to illuminate the path of searchers for the doctrines of our jurisprudence, as set forth in judicial decisions. His absolute and unyielding impartiality and integrity were such marked characteristics that it was impossible for any one to so much as suspect that he was conscious of either fear or favoritism, no matter who were engaged in a cause before him, or what might be the interests involved. It was impossible for Rufus W. Peckham to think except in a straight line from premise to conclusion, according to the logic and reason of the case as he saw them. All must agree that the conclusions reached by JUDGE PECKHAM were the honest conclusions of an openminded judge, and they were expressed in clear and convincing language which bespoke the sincerity and the ability of the man. Not only was JUDGE PECKHAM Our ideal of a judge in ability, character and conduct, but he had the judicial manner upon the Bench; always courteous yet dignified; his occasional colloquies with counsel arguing before the court were always with the purpose of acquiring information or obtaining the views of counsel, and not with the purpose of indulging in controversy. His keen and incisive questions to counsel left no doubt of his desire to arrive at the very truth of the case, and left no sting behind. And now, what shall we say of JUDGE PECKHAM as a man and as a friend? As we have already said, there are few of us who can remember him in the days before he became a judge in the freedom from restraint and reserve of ordinary professional life. But, to those of us who knew him only as a judge, when he was surrounded to some extent by that undefined, but always-felt distinction between the Bench and the Bar, JUDGE PECKHAM preserved, even after he became a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, a geniality and a kindliness which, in social intercourse, made him peculiarly attractive. We would not call him affable, for that implies a certain amount of condescension, and there was nothing of condescension about Rufus Peckham. He never seemed con scious of his honors, nor did he feel it necessary to maintain an attitude of judicial reserve, but to his dying day he was the same hearty, outspoken, warm-hearted Rufus Peckham that some of us knew in our earlier days. It is hard for us to realize that the life and the judicial career of this eminent son of New York State are at an end. His sturdy intellectual honesty, his absolute and exclusive devotion to judicial duty, and his sterling common sense, made him an invaluable member of the great tribunal which he so fitly graced. The influence which he has exerted upon the jurisprudence of this State and of this country cannot be overestimated. As has been frequently remarked, it is one of the advantages which the judicial function possesses over that of the advocates of the Bar, that while the fame of the latter vanishes, with rare exceptions, with the brain and the voice which gave it life, the fame of the former is written imperishably in the volumes of official reports, which will be handed down from generation to generation. The name and the fame of Rufus W. Peckham will last as long as the decisions of the Court of Appeals of this State and of the Supreme Court of the United States are quoted as authority. This Association extends to the bereaved widow and family our deepest and profound sympathy, and begs to assure them that the members of the Bar of this State are fellow-mourners with them in their great loss. I hereby certify that the foregoing is a correct copy of the Resolutions adopted upon the report of the Committee, appended hereto, at the special meeting of the New York State Bar Association, called to commemorate the life and services of the late MR. JUSTICE PECKHAM, which meeting was held on Thursday, December 9, 1909, in the Assembly Chamber in the Capitol in the city of Albany, N. Y. [SEAL.] FREDERICK E. WADHAMS, Dated Albany, N. Y., December 16, 1909. Secretary. SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES. Amendment to sec. 7 of rule 24.1 OCTOBER TERM, 1909. ORDER. It is ordered by the court that § 7 of rule 24 be, and the same is hereby, amended so as to read as follows: "For preparing the record or a transcript thereof for the printer, indexing the same, supervising the printing, and distributing the printed copies to the justices, the reporter, the law library, and the parties or their counsel, fifteen cents per folio; but when the necessary printed copies of the record, as printed for the use of the lower court, shall be furnished, the fee for supervising shall be five cents per folio. "For every printed copy of any opinion of the Court or any justice thereof, certified under seal, two dollars." (Promulgated January 10, 1910.) 1 For all rules of the Supreme Court of the United States see 210 U. S. 441. xiv TABLE OF CONTENTS. TABLE OF CASES REPORTED. Abril v. Modesto Cobian y Muniz . Acord v. Western Pocahontas Corporation Adelbert College of Western Reserve University v. |