St Johnsbury Academy - Lamp Yearbook (St Johnsbury, VT)

Page 8 text:

6 THE ACADEMY STUDENT After graduation, forced to decide between teaching and the bench, he hesitated only to decide in which place he could render the greater service. Upon the advice of a friend, he accepted a professorship in the Law School with the provision that he would be free to resign if the position of Associate Justice should be offered him. He left Harvard to enter the Massachusetts court, where he served for twenty years before taking his place in the Supreme Court of the United States. Speaking of the satisfaction he derived from this great opportunity, the Justice said. “To have the chance to do one’s share in shaping the laws of the whole country spreads over one the hush that one used to feel when one was awaiting the beginning of battle. . . .” Justice Holmes’s ideas in regard to the Constitution were frequently considered radical; actually they were liberal and forward-looking. He always strove to obey the spirit of the law rather than its letter. With rare sanity and vision he kept his mind open to orderly change. Never afraid to express his views, he once said, “When, twenty years ago, a vague terror went over the earth and the word socialism began to be heard, I thought and still think that fear was translated into doctrines that had no proper place in the Constitution or the common law. Judges are apt to be naif, simple-minded men, and the}' need something of Mephistopheles. We too need education in the obvious — to learn to transcend our own convictions and to leave room for much that we hold dear to be done away with, short of revolution, by the orderly change of law.” A more aristocratic gentleman than Mr. Holmes could not be found, nor a more truly democratic. He was aloof and refused to be interviewed, but he always considered the best good of the people. When the whole nation was plunged into mourning at the death of the beloved jurist, President Roosevelt made the following statement: “We cannot minimize the grief of his passing, but we can find a solace in the thought that he was with us for so long. His was a life of rare distinction: soldier, scholar, author, teacher, jurist, and gallant gentleman, he personified throughout his long career the finest American tradition.”

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VALEDICTORY ESSAY A MAN FOR THIS AGE Three months ago our country was made poorer by the passing of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, for many years a judge in the Supreme Court of the United States. It is probable, however, that to multitudes of Americans Justice Holmes meant little except a long-familiar name, until there came the announcement of his unusual will, bequeathing to the United States of America the sum of $250,000. In its financial value, in relation to the enormous sums which Congress is spending every day, this sum is insignificant indeed, but in what it symbolizes, such a gift is immeasurable in its worth, for it is typical of the entire life of a man who believed in his government and in the obligation of a citizen to support it, a man whose whole life was one of loyal service to his country. The Justice had much to give to his country, for his ideals of service and citizenship were a fundamental part of him, inherited through several generations. TTis father had been a physician and a writer, while his grandfather. Abiel Holmes, was a Congregational minister, a man of strong convictions and Christian ideals. Throughout the Civil War Oliver gave his utmost in active service on the field of battle. Tie was seriously wounded several times. At Antietam he was shot through the neck and was believed dead when he was taken from the field. Nevertheless. as soon as it was physically possible, he returned to the field of battle, and when the war ended he had attained the rank of captain. When the army was demobilized. Oliver determined to study law, and it has been said that “from the moment Holmes entered the law school he never once scattered his fire. As a writer, as a speaker, as a lawyer, teacher, jurist, every movement and every outgiving was the product of a considered and concentrated attention.”

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THE ACADEMY STUDENT 7 It is small wonder that the period in which we are living is one of extreme cynicism, pessimism, and confus:on, with crime waves sweeping the country and with personal gain and material pleasure the predominating motives. Veterans are clamoring for money, who never saw the battlefield. Millionaires are trying to evade income taxes. Lawmakers are serving expediency rather than principle. Private citizens, too indolent to inform themselves concerning the issues of the day are neglecting even the privilege of voting at the polls. Many Americans are feeling that the government owes them a living. In challenging contrast to this clamor for getting comes the quiet voice of a gentleman bequeathing the ‘‘residue of his fortune” — as lie had given his life — “to the United States of America.” Concerning this bequest one editor has written as follows: ‘‘Would that this gift could be earmarked or set up in a visbile form to be thrust before the eyes of every congressman about to authorize a new splurge of spending, and of every federal employee forgetful of where the money comes from which seems so easy to pass out. Would that it could be offered as a first instalment to shame every bloc that comes begging for a special hand-out, with the words, ‘Here, take this; this is the kind of money you are asking for!.... May this symbol remind other Americans of their own obligation to support their government in every way.” And now the time has come for the Class of 1935 to say farewell to this Academy where it has known such happy years. We are grateful, Trustees, Principal, and Faculty, for your guidance, which has helped us when the way was hard and has better prepared us for the task of life before us. As we go out into the world, may we be stronger and more loyal citizens for the shining example set by the great jurist, Oliver Wendell Holmes. —Claudia Goodrich