USA > Pennsylvania > Washington County > The courts of justice, bench & bar of Washington County, Pennsylvania > Part 14
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J. WILEY DAY, MORRIS TOWNSHIP. [ Half-tone by Bragdon, from photograph by Hallam.]
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RESPONSE, MR. J. WILEY DAY.
edgments, too, are due to Mr. James I. Brownson, county solicitor, for guidance, to the judges, the bar, and other officers of the court for ever-ready counsel, and to the press for constant and hearty support.
RESPONSES.
The master of ceremonies then introduced successively three gentlemen representing the tax-payers of the county, one of the judges representing the court, and a member of the bar representing the bar and county officers, to respond to the foregoing address by Mr. Clark.
These addresses, in the order of their delivery, were as follows:
1. Mr. J. Wiley Day,1 of Morris township: ON BEHALF OF THE TAX-PAYERS.
FELLOW-CITIZENS :
Called together as we are, under circumstances peculiarly interesting to the citizens of Washington County, it is in keep- ing with the present occasion that we notice briefly something of its early history.
In 1781 Washington County was organized. The need of public buildings being felt, one David Hoge, founder of the town of Basset, now Washington, gave to the new county (all honor to his memory), a plot of ground two hundred and forty feet square, upon which the first court-house building was finished in 1787. It was a log structure, historic for being the first temple of justice in the county. This building was burned down during the winter of 1790-91. In 1794 a second took its place, at a cost of $14,600, with some additional ex-
1 Mr. Day was born in Morris township, Washington County, Pennsyl- vania, on December 15, 1837, of Samuel and Hannah Day, and has followed the business of farming all his life.
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penses for such articles as candlesticks, scouring-sand, ink- powder, etc. This building, being more modern in architec- ture and material, marked a period in the early history of the county, so near the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the progress of civilization seemed to move slowly but surely in the hands of an industrious people.
At that time every home was a manufacturing establish- ment; the tradesman had his workshop; those that chose agriculture went forth to clear away the forests, and turn the virgin soil into fertile fields, that they might produce " seed for the sower and bread for the eater." The reaper went forth, sickle in hand, to gather the golden grain handful by hand- ful; the grain-cradle came to his relief, and was operated by main strength and lubricated by a commodity then manufac- tured in almost every community, but not so common in harvest fields to-day.
A third court-house was finished in 1842, and with a sheriff's house cost nearly $30,000. This being near the middle of the century marked another epoch in the history of the county, when the gray morning of civilization seemed to burst forth, with renewed life and vigor in every department; like the vision of the ancient prophet, progress upon wheels, moving onward and upward.
Let us not forget that nature has deposited some of her richest treasures within the borders of our county. From deep down in the bowels of the earth the ingenious hand of man has brought forth the petroleum, and sent it on its mission to give light and heat, bringing joy and comfort to many homes. The black diamond that lies in the bosom of the earth is used to furnish the energy that carries commerce over land and sea. The secret that nature yielded to Franklin moves the car to and fro with its living freight, and brings the
D. S. FULTON, HANOVER TOWNSHIP. [Half-tone by Bragdon, from photograph.]
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RESPONSE, MR. D. S. FULTON.
civilized world into the magic circle of instantaneous com- munication.
It would not do the occasion justice were I not to speak of the noble women of Washington County, who stood so faithfully beside the sterner sex, and shared the trials and vicissitudes of the infant county. I know of no greater eulogy to pronounce upon them than that pronounced by Cromwell's blind clerk: "They are heaven's choicest gift. "
Now, my fellow-citizens, nearing the end of this eventful century, we have met for the purpose of dedicating this the fourth court-house built in the county. We have looked upon the exterior; we now behold the interior, and we wonder what manner of man the architect was who so skillfully drew the plan, or the mechanic that materialized the same-a "master workman that need not be ashamed."
In behalf of the citizens of Washington County, we accept this magnificent temple of justice; and may it ever be an asylum for justice, in keeping with the law of the great Law- giver of the universe; may this monument, whose dome has reached a dizzy height, crowned with that figure which repre- sents him who lies near the heart of every American citizen, stand to be honored and preserved by succeeding generations.
2. Mr. D. S. Fulton,' of Hanover township:
ALSO ON BEHALF OF THE TAX-PAYERS.
FELLOW-CITIZENS:
In our school days, as we thumbed the pages of Mc- Guffey's Series, with a persistency which was successful in dog-earing the leaves if not in imbibing the contents,
1 Mr. Fulton was born in Hanover township, Washington County, on April 18, 1838, of James L. and Sarah (Russell) Fulton, and has been a farmer all his life.
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we were particularly impressed by a cut representing a sol- dier boy armed with sword and sash, and strutting with apparent appreciation of his own importance; and underneath we read, in the usual boyish fashion, "Oh, were you ne'er a school-boy, and did you never train, and feel that swelling of the heart you ne'er shall feel again ?" No doubt the would-be poet expressed a general truth, yet what citizen of Washington County can view this vast and beautiful structure, realizing the fact that it is ours, and not feel something of a similar state of expansion ?
Does it pay? is a question we hear on every hand; and justly, too, for we have a right to demand an adequate return on all expenditures. This principle underlies all true success. While this is true, still we must not always expect an imme- diate return, for the future must be provided for. Too often we only recognize the return in dollars and cents, overlooking entirely those nobler influences which act upon our social, moral, and intellectual being. While we think it would not be difficult to show to any reasonable mind that the expendi- ture in this instance is sure to make returns in kind, yet we prefer to spend the little time allotted to us in pointing out the nobler returns to be anticipated along educational lines-edu- cation in its broadest sense, the effect of our actions and sur- roundings in building our characters and molding our lives for weal or for woe.
Too often the grosser elements of our nature, love of self and love of possessions, are appealed to. Especially is this true in the political arena. Is the issue free-trade or pro- tection ? Each exponent assures us that his policy will enrich, while the other will surely impoverish. Is it the pro or con of free coinage of silver, or the disposition of our island pos- sessions ? The same sordid principle is appealed to. Yea, even
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our prohibition friends strive to show that the abolition of the liquor traffic is sure to put money in our pockets, while their opponents slyly point to the steady flow of revenue from the license system. And in the avenues of trade, too, such is the case, until one is almost persuaded that ninety-eight cents has usurped the place of the dollar as a unit of value.
All this has a tendency to contract and degrade the human soul by constantly appealing to the grosser elements of our nature. The wise man expressed a common law of our nature when he said, " The liberal soul shall be made fat." As fat expands the body, so liberality expands the soul. Nature teaches liberality in all her endowments and in all her opera- tions. The God of nature teaches liberality in revelation. The Jewish nation, that had an infinite Ruler, as well as infal- lible laws, were taught liberality to such an extent that at times the people had to be restrained from giving, and they manifested the expansion of their souls by rejoicing with ex- ceeding great joy at being permitted to give. We need not only liberality in giving, but in devising, in proper propor- tion, not only for the present, but for the future. Liberality in architecture tending to beauty and grandeur is equally en- nobling with the beauty and grandeur in nature. Wherever you see commodious and tasteful homes and surroundings, there you expect to find noble souls. Wherever civilization and the fine arts go, there go architectural beauty and sym- metry, developing love of country and love of the beautiful.
We behold it, too, in divine revelation. Listen to the human ruler of Israel as he charges his son Solomon: "The house that is to be builded must be exceedingly magnificent, and I have prepared for it with all my might, and thou mayest add thereto;" and we are not surprised in after years, when the shepherd lad was tending his flock upon his native heath,
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to hear him, as his eyes fell upon the Holy City, break out in ecstasy: " Mt. Zion stands most beautiful, the joy of all the land. The city of the great king on the north side doth stand." Surely the divine mind recognized the efficacy of these influences to make noble and happy citizens.
Yes, my friends, perhaps you have builded greater than you knew. You have builded upon every village and hamlet, upon every school-house and home; yea, upon every soul in the county, and although the love of the almighty dollar may blind some minds now to the true significance of your achieve- ment, yet when future generations are enjoying the fruits of your liberal sowing, they will most surely rise up and call you blessed.
Do we, the citizens of Washington County, accept it at your hands? Surely, with this magnificent building over our heads and these inspiring thoughts in our minds, what can we do but accept it, with thankfulness to you who have borne the brunt of its construction, and with the prayer that every word spoken and every act performed within its devoted walls may be just as pure and ennobling as the building itself.
3. Mr. James S. Buchanan,1 of Mt. Pleasant township: ALSO ON BEHALF OF THE TAX-PAYERS.
[The personal attendance of Mr. Buchanan was prevented by a serious illness, as explained in the following letter from him, read by Mr. T. J. Duncan:]
HICKORY, PENNSYLVANIA, November 15, 1900.
T. JEFF. DUNCAN, EsQ.
Dear Sir-In a former letter I accepted an invitation to be present at the dedication of the new court-house, and partici-
1 Mr. Buchanan was born in Mt. Pleasant township, on April 1, 1838, of Thomas and Jane Buchanan; in occupation a farmer and wool-grower, and for twenty-five years he has served as a justice of the peace.
JAMES S. BUCHANAN, MOUNT PLEASANT TOWNSHIP. [Half-tone by Bragdon, from photograph by Hallam.]
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RESPONSE, MR. JAMES S. BUCHANAN.
pate in the exercises as stated in the published program. I am very sorry now that this cannot be, and that all I am able to do is to send this expression of my regret and disappoint- ment. The loss, however, will be chiefly mine, as is also the misfortune that prevents my attendance as promised. Please explain the situation to your committee, and in such manner as you may deem prudent kindly make known to the audience that may assemble at the dedicatory exercises that my failure to appear as announced is a dispensation of Providence, and not, on my part, a willful disregard of my engagement. On Monday I was taken quite ill, and have been bedfast ever since, and am now so sick and weak that it is with difficulty that I write this explanation of my unavoidable absence.
The dedication of a county court-house is an event that is likely to occur but once in the lifetime of an individual, and probably no person who witnesses the dedication of the present building in this year of grace 1900 will ever be pres- ent at a similar occasion in Washington County. Her citizens should feel proud that they have this handsome and commo- dious structure for the ornamentation of their county-seat, for the preservation of their records and evidences of title, and for the dealing out of even-handed justice to litigants. It is the property of the people as a whole, erected for their wel- fare, and should be so considered and valued by them.
American courts and court-houses are the strongest bul- warks of American liberties, standing as they do for a peaceful and equitable administration of law, and in marked and noble contrast with the militarism by which so many millions of the human race are governed and terrorized by potentates in other parts of the world. They are better and cheaper than stand- ing armies, provided their sanctity and purity are preserved as they ought to be. Judges should be able and impartial;
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lawyers should be honorable as well as faithful to clients, never, for the sake of pride or filthy lucre, lending themselves to the advocacy of an unjust cause; litigants should seek only justice; and witnesses should never become partisans to a cause in which they are called to testify.
When the erection of the present new building was at first discussed, there was much apprehension among tax- payers that it would result in a lavish expenditure of pub- lic money, and cause unnecessary and perhaps oppressive taxation. I believe this feeling has generally passed away as the work progressed, and that the opponents to the en- terprise are now comparatively few and far between. The people of Washington County came largely from the sturdy old Scotch-Irish stock; and have, from its earliest settle- ment, been known for their intelligence, thrift, and public enterprise. The influence of her children has gone out in every direction. They have become leaders amongst the people of the various sections in which they have located ou leaving their native county; they have gained eminence in almost every department of life, literature, science, law, theology, statesmanship, war, commerce, and material indus- tries, and the names of some are prominent on the pages of national history. The new court - house becomes such a people, and it is my earnest hope that it may long en- dure to answer the purposes of its erection, and that no wrong or injustice may ever be perpetrated within its walls.
Again I express my disappointment at being kept away from its dedication, and my wish that nothing may occur to mar the dedication exercises.
BRAD ON,P.CH.
JAMES FRANKLIN TAYLOR,
ADMITTED, 1879. ADDITIONAL LAW JUDGE FROM 1895. [Half-tone by Bragdon, from photograph by IIallam.]
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RESPONSE, J. F. TAYLOR, A. L. J.
4. Hon. J. F. Taylor,' of Washington, Pennsylvania: ON BEHALF OF THE COURT.
MR. CHAIRMAN, LADIES, AND GENTLEMEN:
It is early in life that our thoughts are directed to the ideas represented by a court-house. If it be an imposing structure, set in a public square, and law and justice are in truth and in fact dispensed with becoming dignity within its walls, our first conception is that lasting conception of high human authority:
"LUCIUS. Justice will be defeated! VIRGINIUS. Who says that?
He lies in the face of the gods! She is immutable,
Immaculate, and immortal! And, though all The guilty globe should blaze, she will spring up Through the fire, and soar above the crackling pile, With not a downy feather ruffled by its fierceness!"
But no one whose duty it has been to make or admin- ister the law has failed to be impressed with the truth that it is a system of perpetual motion. While its primary and principal purpose is to promote justice, and to this end remains stable and sure, it is found necessary to constantly enlarge its scope and relax its rules. And the reason for this is, that the law is simply an expression of the chang- ing needs of daily life, and that to do justice the law must keep step with progress. We outgrow law as we do our clothes; and as we expand in size we need larger equip- ment and a better fit, it has been said.
It is perfectly easy to understand that when there were
1 Hon. James Franklin Taylor was born in South Strabane township, on January 15, 1854, of William H. and Jane (Jones) Taylor; attended Washington and Jefferson College through the junior year; studied law with Mr. Boyd Crumrine, and was admitted to the Washington County bar in 1879; district attorney, 1884-1889; appointed additional law judge in 1895, and the same year was elected and commissioned for the full term of ten years. See sketch of Colonel Henry Taylor, ante, p. 35.
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no railroads the law of railroads did not exist. So long as oil and gas remained fugitive volatiles in the depths of the earth, there were no laws regulating ownership and produc- tion. The vast volume of laws appertaining to these subjects has been a growth, and every time a new question has been asked as to the right of the passenger, the shipper, the railroad company, or the producer and transporter through other estates, it has been answered by a statute or by a decision. The telegraph, the telephone, and the trolley-all the mysterious forces which are contributing to our daily comfort and becoming indispensable to our daily life-are constantly calling upon us to tell them what is the law.
With such marvelous growths and developments in our times, along these and kindred lines, necessitating enlarged and improved places of protection for the vast accumulations of court files and books of record made by the people, and expansion for resultant business - nowhere more apparent and pressing than in this prosperous county of Washington -it would be strange, indeed, when providing for these civilized requirements, the development of our wants, we should build strictly utilitarian piles and ignore or minimize beauty of structure and extent of dimension. Among the best proofs of the advanced civilization to which some of the ancients attained, and of the lost arts, are the uncovered ruins of their architecture and the work of their artisans.
In this building, protection, expansion, convenience, beauty of structure and decoration, and extent of dimensions are happily combined, and as was asserted when its chief corner-stone was laid, when its dome should raise itself into the sky, and its courts and corridors be dedicated to their intended uses, the thoughtful and progressive citizens, liberal-minded, liberal-handed to the county's needs and
ALEXANDER WILSON, ADMITTED, 1853. [Half-tone by Bragdon, from photograph by Rothwell.]
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RESPONSE, J. F. TAYLOR, A. L. J.
deserts, would swell with pride over this public possession, and this feeling find expression in praise for its projectors, designers, builders, and workmen. Your presence and plaudits here to-day attest the fulfillment of that foretelling.
Here is much for just county pride and for general felicitation. We now have a modern court-house, contracted for, in the main, before the great advance in the price of the materials entering into its construction ; and since, the payment of its cost and its ownership further apportioned and shared by taxable estates in vast bodies of coal recently segregated from the surface and owned chiefly by companies and corporations. And though its outer walls are not of the costly and ages-enduring granite of which the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids, they are of stone well laid, and will stand long after succeeding generations shall have passed from this mortal life. The materials used are the best of their kind, the workmanship is honest throughout, and we believe the entire structure to have been controlled without jobbery in contracts.
It is amid these conditions and with these beliefs, the desire of those now charged with the administration of justice through the several courts to sit from time to time, during their administrations, in this building, that I, on their behalf, in this presence, make grateful acknowledgments to the honorable board of county commissioners, the architect, the contractors, the superintendent, the foreman, even unto the humblest artisan, "each in his separate star," for the honesty and fidelity here apparent ; and return to the sovereign people of the county the thanks of the court for this munificence.
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5. Mr. Alexander Wilson,1 of Washington, Pennsylvania: FOR THE BAR AND COUNTY OFFICERS.
MR. CHAIRMAN:
On behalf of the members of the bar and the county offi- cers, I render thanks and congratulations to the architect for the plan of this beautiful building, and to the contractors and workmen who have so faithfully and skillfully wrought upon it.
The erection of a new court-house was an absolute neces- sity. Within the last few years the population of the county has largely increased. Important industrial and commercial enterprises have caused a great increase in the volume of busi- ness in the courts and in the county offices. Up to 1881, one hundred and twenty-five volumes, many of them of small size, were sufficient to contain all the deeds and mortgages that were recorded during the period of one hundred years. Since 1881, one hundred and eighty-five volumes of much larger size have been filed. More dockets have been required in the clerk's office in the last nineteen years than were used during the preceding one hundred years.
In the prothonotary's, register's, treasurer's, sheriff's, and commissioners' offices, the business transacted shows a very large increase with the growth of the population. The vaults in the old building were not sufficiently large to hold the record books and papers, and to accommodate those who were obliged to work in them. And had the old court-house been destroyed by fire the vaults would also have been destroyed, and the muniments of the titles of every man who owned a
1 Mr. Wilson was born at Wheeling, West Virginia, on May 23, 1830, of Marcus and Ann (Evans) Wilson; graduated at Washington College in 1847; studied law with Mr. A. W. Acheson, and was graduated from the Harvard Law School; was admitted to the Washington County bar in 1853; and was district attorney for the county, 1856-1862.
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RESPONSE, MR. ALEXANDER WILSON.
rood of land within the county would have been swept away. Therefore, let us rejoice to-day, not only in the beauty of this building, but also in the security it affords for the preserva- tion of our title-deeds.
The supervision of the erection of this building has im- posed great responsibility and labor upon the commissioners and their solicitor, and our thanks are rendered to them for the fidelity and integrity with which they have discharged the trust committed to them.
The building is complete in all its parts. The offices are commodious, with ample provision for the safe-keeping of the records, and they will be manned by courteous gentlemen who are well qualified for the positions to which they have been called.
We are thankful for the large and convenient room which the commissioners have set apart for the court library, and for assigning a suitable and pleasant room for the use of the Bar Association.
To our legal brethren from other counties who are present with us to-day we give the hand of fellowship, greeting them as members of an honorable and useful profession.
To all the guests within our gates we extend a cordial wel- come.
Of all the members of the bar of Washington County who were practitioners in the year of 1843 in the old court-house but one survives, our esteemed fellow-citizen, Alexander Mur- doch, Esq., now president of the First National Bank of this place. Although he retired from practice many years ago, he wishes to be regarded as still a member of the bar, and we ex- tend to him our fraternal greetings. His contemporaries at this bar were renowned as able counselors and eloquent advocates.
One of my lawyer friends who recently returned from a tour in Europe told me that the first place he visited after his
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arrival in the city of Brussels was the beautiful "Temple of Justice," that cost ten millions of dollars.
Every court-house is a temple of justice, and stands as an emblem of the supremacy of law, as security for the protec- tion of the rights and liberties of the people. Within its precincts all suitors stand upon an equality. The judges are impartial arbiters. Jurors are sworn well and truly to try the issues joined. The oath of the attorneys is a pledge of fidelity to the court and to their clients.
The commonwealth is safe so long as we have an indepen- dent and upright judiciary, an honorable bar and conscientious jurors.
Let us hope that in all the coming years the courts here holden will be presided over, as they now are, by impartial judges of high character, and that the bar may always be composed, as it now is, of gentlemen of integrity and ability.
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