of establishing schools in Greece for the education of females. They invited Stephen to accompany them. His brother, David Dudley, who as the eldest of the family took a deep and active interest in promoting the welfare of the younger members, advised his going for the purpose of studying the Oriental languages, thinking that he could thereby qualify himself for a professorship of Oriental languages and literature in an American University. With this design he accompanied his sister and brother-in-law. They sailed December 10th, 1829, and arrived at Smyrna, February 5, 1830. Mr. Brewer there changed his original plan and established a school at Smyrna. Stephen remained in the Levant two and a half years. In addition to the time spent in Smyrna he visited many of the islands of the Grecian Archipelago, and famous cities of Asia Minor, and passed one winter in Athens in the family of the Rev. John Hill, the wellknown American missionary of the Episcopal Church. Mr. and Mrs. Hill had been on a visit to Smyrna, and Mr. Hill being detained by some matters of business, Mrs. Hill returned to Athens without him. Stephen accompanied her as her escort and remained at Athens until Mr. Hill's return. During this residence in the East, Stephen learned the modern Greek so that he was able to write and to speak it with ease, and acquired some knowledge of the French, Italian, and Turkish. But the most important and lasting result of the time thus spent in the East during the plastic period of his youth, was a moral one; and the lesson which he there learned was that of religious toleration. He had been brought up as a boy in the strictest tenets of Calvinism. As he says of himself, "he had been taught to believe that the New England Puritans possessed about all the good there was in the religious world," and to look with distrust upon all the great historical churches which they, with one sweeping condemnation, called Nominal Christians. During his Eastern life he was thrown into close contact with Roman Catholics,

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members of the Greek Church, and Armenians, as well as with Mahometans; he saw examples of faith, devotion, piety, and virtue among them all, and was profoundly impressed by them. Indeed, his views underwent an entire revolution; and there was laid the foundation of that broad tolerance which has ever since been a distinguishing element of his character.*

He returned to the United States during the winter of 1832-3; entered Williams College in the fall of 1833, and was graduated in 1837, having obtained the highest honors of his class the Greek oration at the Junior Exhibition, and the valedictory oration at the Commencement. He entered upon the study of the law during the Spring of 1838, in the office of his brother, David Dudley, in New York City, and was admitted to the Bar in 1841. A portion of this interval he spent in Albany, giving instruction to classes of the Albany Female Academy, and pursuing his

*Stephen was in Smyrna when the dreaded plague visited the city in the spring of 1831. Every one then avoided his neighbor as if contagion would follow the slightest touch. Says a writer describing the scenes: "If two men met in the street, each drew away from the other, as if contact were death. Sometimes they hugged the walls of the houses, with canes in their hands ready to strike down any one who should approach. All papers and letters coming through the mails were smoked and dipped in vinegar before they were delivered, lest they might communicate infection. Even vegetables were passed through water before they were taken from the hands of the seller. Terrible tales were told of scenes when guests were carried away dead from the table, and servants dropped down while waiting upon it. On every countenance was depicted an expression of terror." Mr. Brewer remained in the city for two or three weeks, and then left with his family in a vessel.

In the Fall of the same year Smyrna was visited with the Asiatic cholera. Hundreds died every day from its attacks, and thousands left the city and camped in the fields. Mr. Brewer gave his time to administering to the sick and dying. With his pockets filled with medicines he went through the lanes and alleys of the city on his errand of mercy. Stephen, with his pockets filled in the same way, accompanied him in all his rounds. Commodore J. E. DeKay, in a work entitled " Turkey in '31 and '32," thus speaks of the heroic devotion of Mr. Brewer in those terrible scenes, as follows:

"The efforts of the physicians at Smyrna during the fearful season of cholera, were nobly seconded by many of the foreign missionaries. Among these I heard the labors of Mr. Brewer everywhere spoken of in terms of admiration. Furnished with all the requisite remedies, he scoured every lane and alley, proclaiming his benevolent intentions, and distributing even food to the needy. Let history, when it repeats the story of the good Bishop of Marseilles-who, after all, was merely a soldier at his post-also record the benevolence and the proud contempt of danger and of death evinced by an American stranger within the pestilential walls of Smyrna."

studies in the office of John Van Buren, then the AttorneyGeneral of the State, and at the summit of his brilliant but disappointing career. On being admitted to the Bar, he was taken into partnership by his brother in New York City, which continued until the year 1848. On the breaking out of the Mexican war, and again at its close, his brother advised him to remove to California, making generous offers of pecuniary means for investment in the purchase of land, but Stephen had a strong desire to visit Europe, and declined the proposal. He sailed for Europe in June, 1848, with the design of making an extensive tour. While in Paris, the following winter, he read the annual message of President Polk to Congress, which officially announced the discovery of gold in California. He then felt some regrets that he had not acted upon the advice of his brother, but nevertheless concluded to visit the most interesting parts of Europe before returning. He did so, and returned to New York in the Fall of 1849, arriving on the 1st of October. Soon afterwards he left for California.

As I do not intend to write a life of Judge Field, I shall not attempt to describe the incidents and adventures of his California career. It will be sufficient to mention the most important events, so as to exhibit the more clearly his public and official labors, and to fix the date of the successive steps which he took until he reached his present high position as a member of the Supreme Court of the United States.

He arrived in San Francisco on the 28th of December, 1849, with hardly any funds, and with no resources except untiring energy and capacity for work, great intellectual ability, natural and cultivated, the well-laid foundation of legal learning, and the high hopes of opening manhood. In January, 1850, he removed to a settlement just commenced which became the important inland city of Marysville. Here he established himself, and the place continued to be his home during the whole of his

professional life in California, until 1857. He was at once elected the first alcalde of the new town, and held the office until the organization of the State government, and the introduction of American institutions. In the Fall of 1850, he was elected a member of the Assembly, the popular branch of the State Legislature, from the county in which Marysville was situated. This Legislature commenced its session on the first Monday of January, 1851, and he was confessedly the leading and most efficient member of the body; many of its most important and permanent acts were planned, proposed, and adopted through his agency. At the expiration of the session he returned to Marysville, resumed the practice of his profession, and soon attained the recognized position of one of the foremost lawyers in the State, and so continued until, in the Fall of 1857, he was elected a Justice of the State Supreme Court for the term of six years, commencing on the first of January, 1858. At this election 93,228 votes in all were cast; of these he had 55,216, one of his competitors, 18,944, and the other, 19,068, so that he received a majority of more than 36,000 over each of the other candidates, and of 17,204 over both combined. A vacancy occurring on the Bench through the death of one of the justices, he was appointed by the Governor for the unexpired term, and took his seat on the 13th of October, 1857. On the resignation of Chief Justice Terry, in September, 1859, he became Chief Justice. He remained in this high office until, in 1863, he was removed to the still higher position-a seat in the Supreme Court of the United States. On March 3d, 1863, a statute of Congress was approved by the President providing for an additional justice of the Supreme Court, and making the States on the Pacific Coast a new circuit. On the recommendation of the entire delegation in Congress from those States, consisting of four Senators and four Representatives,—of whom five were Democrats and three Republicans, and all Union men,-Judge Field was nominated by President

Lincoln, and his nomination was unanimously confirmed by the Senate. He resigned the State judgeship, and took the oath of office as judge of the United States Supreme Court on the 20th of May, 1863. His commission was issued March 10th, but he gave the following explanation of his selection of May 20th, for entering upon the duties of the of fice. It was necessary that he should postpone his retirement from the State Bench for a while, in order that the Court might decide the causes which had already been argued and submitted for decision, so that the parties need not be put to the delay and expense of re-arguments. He chose the 20th of May because he believed the causes argued would be by that time decided, and because it was the birthday of his father; he thought that his father would be gratified to learn that on the 82d anniversary of his own birth, his son had become a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Having thus mentioned the most important events of Judge Field's life, I shall analyze and describe his work (1) as a Legislator in the early days of California; (2) as a Judge of the California Supreme Court; and (3) as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

I.-Judge Field's work as a Legislator.

In order to appreciate the extent and importance of Judge Field's legislative work during his single term of office, and the lasting effect which it has produced not only upon California, but upon other and especially the mining States, the anomalous condition of the State at that early day must be fully understood. I shall make no attempt to describe the mere social features of California during the years succeeding the discovery of gold; they have been often portrayed by masters in the art of word-painting. I shall refer to the condition of the State so far only as relates to the law, and the special property interests which then existed.