Judge S. P. SHOPE said, concerning the death of Judge CATON:

If the Court please-The following memorial, commemorative of the life and services of one of Illinois greatest and most useful men, has been prepared by the committee appointed for that purpose, as expressive, in some degree, of the sense of the bar of the State, and I have been requested to present it to your Honors and ask that it be spread upon the records of this court:

"JOHN DEAN CATON was born March 19, 1812, in Monroe, Orange county, New York. His ancestry emigrated to this country before the revolutionary war, his father serving in the American army. He spent the early years of his life upon a farm, and in poverty. At the age of about fifteen he was apprenticed to a saddle and harness-maker, with whom he remained for a considerable time. His eyesight becoming impaired, he was forced to leave that employment and again return to the home of his widowed mother, who had in the meantime removed to Utica, New York. To assist in the maintenance of the family he hired a horse and wagon, and became a common carrier between Waterville and Utica.

"In 1829 he rejoined his mother, and entered the academy at Utica, and applied himself assiduously to studying the common branches of an education, and that of surveying. He became so far proficient in surveying that he did some work as surveyor, and thereby added to his otherwise scanty means of support. The winter of that year he taught school, and the following summer again hired out on a farm, and the succeeding winter entered upon a classical course of study. In December, 1831, he entered a lawyer's office as a student of law. Having acquired the rudiments of a legal education he came west, arriving in Chicago June 19, 1833, and was the first, but one, to offer his services as a practitioner at law in that city, and brought the first suit instituted in the circuit court in that county. In the fall of 1833 he obtained.a license to practice law, from Judges Lockwood and Smith, then judges of this court. In 1835 he was married, and in 1836 erected the first house on the 'school section' west of the Chicago river. His health having, to some extent, failed, in 1839 he moved to a farm, where he resided until 1842, meanwhile, however, keeping up his practice in the neighboring counties. In the latter year Judge Ford was elected Governor, and Mr. CATON was appointed as his successor upon the Supreme bench. He was then thirty

years of age. At the expiration of the short term for which he was appointed John M. Robinson was chosen to the position. Upon the death of Judge Robinson, the following April, Judge CATON was again appointed and commissioned as his successor, and was subsequently elected by the legislature. In 1848 the judicial system was so far revised that the Supreme Court was composed of three judges, elected by the people. Judges Samuel H. Treat, Lyman Trumbull and JOHN DEAN CATON were the first chosen under that constitution. By law the judges were to cast lots for length of term. Judge Trumbull drew the short term, Judge CATON the intermediate term, the long term falling to Judge Treat. Judge Treat resigned in 1855, and Judge CATON succeeded him as chief justice, and so continued until the expiration of his commission. He was re-elected in 1857, and again became chief justice, and continued to occupy that exalted position until 1864, when he resigned.

"After an uninterrupted service of twenty-two years, Chief Justice CATON, in the vigor of life and with mental powers unimpaired, retired from the active duties of his profession to indulge in other pursuits less exhausting in their nature and more congenial to his tastes. He had early learned to economize his time, and, notwithstanding the arduous duties of his judicial position, was enabled to turn his attention to other pursuits and to identify his name with many of the leading enterprises of the day, without in the slightest degree interfering with the discharge of the public duty. As early as 1849 he became connected with telegraph operations, from which, in connection with his other enterprises, he amassed a large fortune. In addition to his great erudition as a lawyer, his vast knowledge of men and affairs, he was a practical and sagacious business man, capable of originating and directing the most complex business enterprises.

"After his retirement, and especially after about the year 1870, he devoted much time to travel and to literary and scientific pursuits. His literary tastes and laborious habits forbade that he should abandon letters and devote his entire time and attention to the many business enterprises in which he was engaged. He turned his attention to writing upon literary and scientific subjects, in a style at once captivating, easy, clear and unaffected. He has left much of a high order as the result of his great mental activity, methodical courses of study and keen appreciation of the subjects

falling within his attention. His work while upon the bench will, however, have the greatest attraction for students of the law. He was surrounded by a great bar, and rose equal to the just expectations of all his friends. He entertained always a high appreciation of the profession and of his official position, and ever sought to bring credit and honor to both. No more fit illustration of the lofty thought of this distinguished jurist can be found than his own words in his address to the bar, when, on retirement from the bench, he said: 'I fully appreciate that this (the bench) is a place worthy of any well-regulated ambition. A wholesome desire for an enduring fame may here find a theater in which it may toil to a useful purpose, and with the well-grounded hope of attaining so desirable an end. I resign the great trusts which have been reposed in me, with the comfortable reflection that I have discharged them with fidelity and with the utmost ability with which I have been endowed.'

"No one familiar with the history of the Supreme Court of Illinois from 1842 to 1854 will in the slightest degree question the entire correctness of this last sentence. Those who had gone before him had laid broad and deep the foundations of that great system of jurisprudence under which the wilderness of three-quarters of a century ago has become one of the foremost States of the American Union. Judge CATON, coming in the vigor of his young manhood to the bench, thoroughly imbued with the principles of the common law, built upon the foundation thus laid, wisely and well, and secured to us the certain adoption and retention of those great fundamental principles of law upon which the security of life, property and individual right so securely rests, as well as that direct and simple mode of procedure known only to the common law, and which has received the sanction of the centuries. He was indefatigable in his labors, bringing to bear at all times his highest and best powers, discharging every duty with a sturdy honesty of purpose, born of an intuitive sense of right. He was solid, rather than brilliant, and reached results by methodical processes, and, having great power of analysis and being capable of great endurance in investigation, he reached conclusions which will stand the test of time. We point to his life and achievements with pride, and as worthy of emulation. He died of paralysis, at his home in Chicago, July 30, 1895, at the age of eighty-four years.

"Thus passes away another of the great men of the State. He shared largely in promoting its progress and was instrumental in shaping its destiny. The members of the bar, adopting this brief memorial, do so in sincere respect to his memory, and in sympathetic condolence with his immediate family and friends."

Judge SHOPE, continuing, said:

If your Honors please-Brief as this memorial is, it tells of a successful life; of success born of high ambition and arduous labor; of the rewards that unremitting toil and strict integrity of purpose, coupled with ability, always bring. In this presence it would be a work of supererogation for me to further allude to his work upon the bench or at the bar, or, indeed, to amplify upon his work or life in the broad fields upon which he entered and so signally succeeded. They are familiar to you as household traditions. He lived a life of activity and usefulness, and died at a ripe old age, full of honors. He did much and deserved well, and received the encomiums and commendation of his fellow countrymen.

How true it is that the longest life, filled with ceaseless activities, is but a span. Our association with our fellows is epitomized in the simple words, "hail and farewell." In the morning of life we greet them; they go a little way with us; but the evening comes, and, though it be illumined by the star of hope, we bid them a long farewell. His life, so full of cares and labors, mayhap of sorrows, of successes, of joys, of triumphs, has ended. It is not to be supposed that, even in later years, he enjoyed only pleasure freed from the cares of life. As he said in the presence of this court when speaking of another who had fallen, "With all our joys are mingled strains of sorrow." And may we not say here of him as he said on the same occasion: "Happiness unalloyed is reserved for that brighter and better world promised to those who act well their part on earth, into the full fruition of which those who knew him better doubt not he is accepted."

I respectfully move your Honors that the memorial I have read in your presence be spread upon the records of this court.

Mr. CHIEF JUSTICE CRAIG responded:

Judge CATON resided in this State so many years, and was so well known by the people of the State, that what the court may say in regard to him will add but little to his high standing as a

citizen or his eminent ability as a jurist. He came into the State early in the thirties, when a young man, and located in Chicago, then a small village, to practice his chosen profession. His energy and ability soon filled his office with business, and it was but a short time before he demonstrated that he was able to compete successfully in the trial of causes with those who were his seniors in years and practice. In 1842 his high character as a citizen and his reputation as a lawyer had become so well established that he was appointed an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the State. He at once entered upon the discharge of the duties of his office, and through successive elections he remained on the bench twentytwo years, resigning in 1864, when he was succeeded by the late Judge Beckwith. His opinions while on the bench will be found in the Supreme Court Reports, beginning with Third Scammon and ending with the thirty-third volume of the Illinois Reports, and it may be truthfully said of his opinions that they not only lay down the rules of law accurately, but they are logical, vigorous and filled with practical common sense, and whenever read they reflect the mind and hand of the great judge who produced them.

Judge CATON was not merely a lawyer, but he possessed fine business talent, and his superior knowledge of the business affairs of men enabled him to determine with great facility the rules of law which should be applied to a transaction which arose in court for determination. When he was first appointed to the bench the State was new, and but few questions of importance had been settled by the Supreme Court of the State, and it devolved upon him and his associates to settle questions which in a great measure determined the future policy of the State. He, as the sequel shows, was equal to the task, and I think that I am safe in saying the prosperity of our State in a great measure results from the integrity and wisdom of the judiciary while he was honored with a seat on the bench. Justice Breese, one of his associates on the bench for several years, in speaking to me in regard to Judge CATON, said: "In the decision of a case where a question arose which he had not investigated and did not know definitely what the law was, he always knew what the law ought to be."

But it will not be necessary to speak further in regard to him. His work speaks for itself. His friends may erect a monument to perpetuate his memory, but that monument will crumble and decay, but Judge CATON'S opinions while a member of this court