Justice, Sir, is the great interest of man on earth.  It is the ligament which holds civilized beings and civilized nations together.  Wherever her temple stands, and so long as it is duly honored, there is a foundation for social security, general happiness, and the improvement and progress of our race.  And whoever labors on this edifice with usefulness and distinction, whoever clears its foundations, strengthens its pillars, adorns its entablatures, or contributes to raise its august dome still higher in the skies, connects himself, in name, and fame, and character, with that which is and must be as durable as the frame of human society.

All know, Mr. Chief Justice, the pure love of country which animated the deceased, and the zeal, as well as the talent, with which he explained and defended her institutions.  His work on the Constitution of the United States is one of his most eminently successful labors.  But all his writings, and all his judgments, all his opinions, and the whole influence of his character, public and private, leaned strongly and always to the support of sound principles, to the restraint of illegal power, and to the discouragement and rebuke of licentious and disorganizing sentiments.  “Ad rempublicam firmandam, et ad stabiliendas vires, et sanandum populum, omnis ejus pergebat institutio.”

But this is not the occasion, Sir, nor is it for me to consider and discuss at length the character and merits of Mr. Justice Story, as a writer or a judge.  The performance of that duty, with which this Bar will no doubt charge itself, must be deferred to another opportunity, and will be committed to abler hands.  But in the homage paid to his memory, one part may come with peculiar propriety and emphasis from ourselves.  We have known him in private life.  We have seen him descend from the bench, and mingle in our friendly circles.  We have known his manner of life, from his youth up.  We can bear witness to the strict uprightness and purity of his character, his simplicity and unostentatious habits, the ease and affability of his intercourse, his remarkable vivacity amidst severe labors, the cheerful and animating tones of his conversation, and his fast fidelity to friends.  Some of us, also, can testify to his large and liberal charities, not ostentatious or casual, but systematic and silent,—­dispensed almost without showing the hand, and falling and distilling comfort and happiness, like the dews of heaven.  But we can testify, also, that in all his pursuits and employments, in all his recreations, in all his commerce with the world, and in his intercourse with the circle of his friends, the predominance of his judicial character was manifest.  He never forgot the ermine which he wore.  The judge, the judge, the useful and distinguished judge, was the great picture which he kept constantly before his eyes, and to a resemblance of which all his efforts, all his thoughts, all his life, were devoted.  We may go the world over, without finding a man who shall present a more striking realization of the beautiful conception of D’Aguesseau:  “C’est en vain que l’on cherche a distinguer en lui la personne privee et la personne publique; un meme esprit les anime, un meme objet les reunit; l’homme, le pere de famille, le citoyen, tout est en lui consacre a la gloire du magistrat.”