In all of them he was successful;
and it may be said that he rarely assumed a position on behalf
of the Government, in any important case, in which he was
not sustained by the judgment of the court. His advocacy
was conscientious and judicial rather than experimental--
as is eminently fitting in the official representative of
the Government. It best subserves the ends of justice, the
suppression of useless litigation, and the prompt administration
of the law.
I can only add that the members of the Supreme Court parted
with Attorney-General Devens with regret. Of him, as of so
many other eminent lawyers, the reflection is just, that the
highest efforts of advocacy have no adequate memorial. Written
compositions remain; but the noblest displays of human genius
at the bar--often, perhaps, the successful assaults of Freedom
against the fortresses of Despotism--are lost to history and
memory for want of needful recordation. _Vixere fortes ante
Agamemnona;_ or, as Tacitus says of the eloquent Haterius,
"Whist the plodding industry of scribblers goes down to posterity,
the sweet voice and fluent eloquence of Haterius died with
himself.
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