inated by the republican party as its candidate for a place upon the supreme bench. He was elected judge of the supreme court and entered upon the discharge of his duties in January, 1881, and served as a supreme judge until May, 1883, when he was appointed by President Arthur United States district judge for the district of Indiana, and succeeded Judge Gresham, who had become postmaster-general. He served as district judge until he was appointed by President Harrison one of the United States circuit judges for the Seventh circuit, and subsequently became, and was at the time of his death, on June 29, 1901, the presiding judge of the United States circuit court of appeals for that circuit.

He was married on December 6, 1870, to Mata Newton, and she and their two children, Floyd A. and Alice N. Woods, survive him.

In any retrospect of a man's professional life the circumstances under which it was begun and pursued are always worthy of consideration. It is really impossible to separate any part of his life from the rest of it. All the parts of it are closely interwoven with one another and bear upon its final outcome. The life which has just closed was begun amidst privation and hardship. At an early stage of it the boy learned to work for a living for himself and others. The love of knowledge was born with him, and he worked for an education. He fully appreciated the opportunities that he gained in this way and he made the most of them. There was also a sense of justice in him from the beginning of his existence which made it impossible for him to embrace those opportunities at the price of another man's involuntary and unpaid labor. He would not mount from the back of a slave; and thereupon the slave became free by the master's act while the master labored on. It was that love of knowledge that made an accomplished lawyer of him, and it was that sense of justice that made him an upright and honored judge.

He applied himself with great zeal and a resolute will to an

equipment of his mind with scholastic and professional knowledge. Whatever he learned he learned it thoroughly. The amount and range of his knowledge were extensive. In the acquisition of it his intellectual faculties were developed and disciplined, and the acquisition of it never ceased. All of his utterances bear the mark of a trained mind. It was a logical and discriminating mind with a turn for nice and close distinctions which sometimes approach the verge of subtlety. His mind was vigorous as well as acute, and his reasoning always exhibited a strong and firm grasp upon the subject-matter under his consideration. If his premises were admitted it was difficult to resist his conclusions. It was also a quick and eager mind that anticipated and outran the argument of others and mercilessly exposed its weakness or absurdity. He loved intellectual fence and thoroughly enjoyed the heat of controversy as long as controversial strife was kept within the bounds of decency and decorum. He was ordinarily a patient listener during the progress of arguments before him and tolerant of any superfluous admonition from the bar. If the division of great judges by an English writer into judges for the legal profession and judges for the parties be accepted as an accurate classification of them, he would not be assigned a place among those judges who are simply content with the correct adjustment of a particular dispute and an assignment of their reasons and authority for it; but he would be given a high place among those judges who find in the dispute an opportunity for the most ample and lucid exposition of those principles which are applicable to it, and thereby endeavor to fix and establish the law of the land upon a secure and durable foundation. Judge Woods rendered the bar an undeniable service in that way. His published opinions are models of ordered and rational exegesis. They are expressed in plain and intelligible language, and they do not leave any room for doubt as to what is meant or was

decided by them. All of them evince careful thought and laborious research.

As a nisi prius and appellate judge under both our state and federal systems of jurisprudence, it became his duty to pass upon many cases of intricacy and importance. Some of them presented questions for decision which bore directly upon the very foundations of our social and political order. It was absolutely inevitable that the decision of those questions should provoke hostile criticism. Nevertheless he did not shrink from the full performance of his judicial duty, or the full responsibility for his performance of it. With the approval of his own conscience and judgment he calmly and confidently waited for an expression of the court of last resort upon his judicial acts, and when it came he was not disappointed. And with the same calmness and confidence his friends may wait for the final adjudication of posterity upon his whole life as a judge and as a man.

NOBLE C. BUTLER,
JOHN R. WILSON,

CHARLES W. SMITH,

EPHRAIM MARSH,

WILLIAM L. TAYLOR.

THE ANNUAL DINNER

GIVEN AT THE COLUMBIA CLUB, JULY 9, 1902, AT
EIGHT O'CLOCK, P. M.

SPEECHES.

Toastmaster, PRESIDENT THEODORE P. DAVIS.

TOAST "IS THERE A NEW SOUTH?"

THE TOASTMASTER: It has been a source of great pleasure to have with us on this occasion our distinguished guest who sits at my right. We greatly enjoyed his address on yesterday, and have been charmed with his society. We are all greatly pleased that now, regardless of political differences and party affiliations, we have no sectional strife in this country, but stand as a united whole. We shall be pleased to hear his response to the query, "Is There a New South?" Mr. Burton Smith will now address you.

RESPONSE.

MR. BURTON SMITH: Mr. President and gentlemen: A few days ago I received a letter from the efficient secretary of this association, advising me that I would be given an opportunity to respond to-night to the toast, "The New South." I was away at the time, and the letter was forwarded to me, reaching me while I was on my way here. I wired in reply that I would prefer to reply to the question, "Is There a New South ?" I reached this city Monday morning about noon and took it for granted that I would then have abundance of time to load up for the subject to-night, but I must admit the hospitality of the Indiana lawyers and the Indiana bar— bearing in mind that bar is singular-has given me very little time

for preparation, and I find that while there have been all sorts of opportunities to load up, there has been very little opportunity to load up for the subject assigned me. [Laughter.]

I was talking with an officer and member of this club and of your association to-day, telling certain things I could mention pertaining to the subject, but I expressed some doubt as to the propriety of saying them before this audience. He said to me: "We Indiana lawyers think what we please and say what we think, and we expect other people to do the same."

The question, "Is There a New South?" naturally would suggest two issues: the negro race and the war. Two able men of that race, Booker T. Washington and Bishop Turner, say negro; they speak of the black men as negroes, so I speak of them in that way. Well, the war was over a long time ago. One of the gentlemen here tonight remarked to me, "When I first went down to Atlanta, you were all very inhospitable." I asked him why. He said, "I went down with Sherman and you didn't want to let us in.” “Well,” I said to him, “you were not a great deal more polite. You came in anyhow, and when a man is asked to stay away, I think he ought to stay away; but you came in anyhow." [Laughter.] He admitted that he had some trouble, for which I thanked him. [Laughter.]

I was brought up in the good old state of North Carolina—a state which was violently opposed to secession and which only seceded after they were called upon to furnish troops to quell the condition of affairs in the adjoining states of South Carolina and Georgia. There was a man there who was a rampant secessionist. He asserted that he could whip those Yankees in two and one-half seconds; in no time. He was given an opportunity after a while to go and assist in whipping the Yankees, but he didn't go into the war at all; he let the rest of them go to whip those Yankees. I had an uncle who was with the southern troops when the confederation was about to go down, and this same rampant southern man was en