His decisions have been as sound
and as acceptable to the profession upon questions where no
authority could be found upon which to rest, and upon questions
outside of the beaten paths of jurisprudence as upon those
where he found aid in his great legal learning. He was a
remarkably acceptable _nisi-prius_ Judge, when holding court
in the rural counties, and, though bred in a city, where human
nature is not generally learned so well, he was especially
fortunate and successful in dealing with questions of fact
which grow out of the transactions of ordinary and humble
life in the country. He manifested on one or two occasions
the gift of historical research and discussion for which his
uncle Francis was so distinguished.
It was my sorrowful duty to preside at a meeting of the Bar
of the Supreme Court of the United States to express their
sense of their great loss and that of the whole country,
after Gray's death.
I add some extracts from the remarks which I made on that
occasion:
The Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States come together
to pay a tribute of honor to a great lawyer and Judge.
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