Charles Emerson's beautiful phrase
in his epitaph upon Professor Ashmun, "Books were his helpers,
never his masters," was most aptly applied to Thomas. If
he had any foible which affected at all his usefulness or
success in life it was an impatience of authority, whether
it were the authority of a great reputation, or of party,
or of public sentiment, or of the established and settled
opinions of mankind. He went on the Supreme Bench in 1853.
Dissenting opinions were rare in the Massachusetts Supreme
Court in those days. In this I think the early Judges were
extremely wise. Nothing shakes the authority of a court more
than the frequent habit of individual dissent. But Judge
Thomas dissented from the judgments of his court on several
very important occasions. His dissenting opinions were exceedingly
alike. I think it would have been better if they had not
been delivered. I think he would have been much more likely
to have come to the other conclusion if the somewhat imperious
intellect of Shaw had not been put into the prevailing scale.
When all Massachusetts bowed down to Webster, Judge Thomas,
though he respected and honored the great public idol, supported
Taylor as a candidate for the Presidency.
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