I
shall have, I am sure, another opportunity to put on record
my own sense of the irreparable loss of a dear friend and
comrade of more than fifty years. To-day we are to speak,
as members of the Bar, of an honored Judge whom the inexorable
shaft has stricken in his high place.
He was in his seat in the Supreme Court of the United States
for the last time Monday, February 3, 1902. On the evening
of that day he had a slight paralytic shock, which serious
affected his physical strength. He retained his mental strength
and activity unimpaired until just before his death. On the
9th day of July, 1902, he sent his resignation to the President,
to take effect on the appointment and qualifying of his successor.
So, he died in office, September 15, 1902.
On his mother's side Judge Gray was the grandson of Jabez
Upham, one of the great lawyers of the day, who died in 1811,
at the age of forty-six, after a brief service in the National
House of Representatives. He was settled in Brookfield, Worcester
County. But the traditions of his great ability were fresh
when I went there to live, nearly forty years after his death.
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